After their previous overlords, the Yuezhi, migrated into Central Asia during the 2nd century BC, the Xiongnu became a dominant power on the steppes of north-east Central Asia, centred on an area known later as Mongolia. The Xiongnu were also active in areas now part of Siberia, Inner Mongolia, Gansu and Xinjiang. Their relations with adjacent Chinese dynasties to the south east were complex, with repeated periods of conflict and intrigue, alternating with exchanges of tribute, trade, and marriage treaties.

An early reference to the Xiongnu was by the Han dynasty historian Sima Qian who wrote about the Xiongnu in the Records of the Grand Historian (c. 100 BC), drawing a distinct line between the settled Huaxia people (Chinese) to the pastoral nomads (Xiongnu), characterizing it as two polar groups in the sense of a civilization versus an uncivilized society: the Hua–Yi distinction.[17] Pre-Han sources often classify the Xiongnu as a Hu people, which was a blanket term for nomadic people in general; it only became an ethnonym for the Xiongnu during the Han.[18]

Ancient China often came in contact with the Xianyun and the Xirong nomadic peoples. In later Chinese historiography, some groups of these peoples were believed to be the possible progenitors of the Xiongnu people.[19] These nomadic people often had repeated military confrontations with the Shang and especially the Zhou, who often conquered and enslaved the nomads in an expansion drift.[19] During the Warring States period, the armies from the Qin, Zhao, and Yan states were encroaching and conquering various nomadic territories that were inhabited by the Xiongnu and other Hu peoples.[20]

In 209 BC, three years before the founding of Han China, the Xiongnu were brought together in a powerful confederation under a new chanyu, Modu Chanyu. This new political unity transformed them into a more formidable state by enabling formation of larger armies and the ability to exercise better strategic coordination. The Xiongnu adopted many of the Chinese agriculture techniques such as slave labor for heavy labor, wore silk like the Chinese, and lived in Chinese-style homes.[25] The reason for creating the confederation remains unclear. Suggestions include the need for a stronger state to deal with the Qin unification of China[26] that resulted in a loss of the Ordos region at the hands of Meng Tian or the political crisis that overtook the Xiongnu in 215 BC when Qin armies evicted them from their pastures on the Yellow River.[27]

After forging internal unity, Modu expanded the empire on all sides. To the north he conquered a number of nomadic peoples, including the Dingling of southern Siberia. He crushed the power of the Donghu people of eastern Mongolia and Manchuria as well as the Yuezhi in the Hexi Corridor of Gansu, where his son, Jizhu, made a skull cup out of the Yuezhi king. Modu also reoccupied all the lands previously taken by the Qin general Meng Tian.

Under Modu's leadership, the Xiongnu threatened the Han dynasty, almost causing Emperor Gaozu, the first Han emperor, to lose his throne in 200 BC.[28] By the time of Modu's death in 174 BC, the Xiongnu had driven the Yuezhi from the Hexi Corridor, killing the Yuezhi king in the process and asserting their presence in the Western Regions.[5]

The Xiongnu were recognized as the most prominent of the nomads bordering the Chinese Han empire[28] and during early relations between the Xiongnu and the Han, the former held the balance of power. According to the Book of Han, later quoted in Duan Chengshi's ninth century Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang:

Also, according to the Han shu, Wang Wu (王烏) and others were sent as envoys to pay a visit to the Xiongnu. According to the customs of the Xiongnu, if the Han envoys did not remove their tallies of authority, and if they did not allow their faces to be tattooed, they could not gain entrance into the yurts. Wang Wu and his company removed their tallies, submitted to tattoo, and thus gained entry. The Shanyu looked upon them very highly.[29]

After Modu, later leaders formed a dualistic system of political organisation with the left and right branches of the Xiongnu divided on a regional basis. The chanyu or shanyu, a ruler equivalent to the Emperor of China, exercised direct authority over the central territory. Longcheng (蘢城), near the Orkhon inscriptions in modern Mongolia, became the annual meeting place and served as the Xiongnu capital.[30]

The ruler of the Xiongnu was called the Chanyu.[31] Under him were the Tuqi Kings.[31] The Tuqi King of the Left was normally the heir presumptive.[31] Next lower in the hierarchy came more officials in pairs of left and right: the guli, the army commanders, the great governors, the dunghu and the gudu. Beneath them came the commanders of detachments of one thousand, of one hundred, and of ten men. This nation of nomads, a people on the march, was organized like an army.[32]

Yap,[33] apparently describing the early period, places the Chanyu's main camp north of Shanxi with the Tuqi King of the Left holding the area north of Beijing and the Tuqi King of the Right holding the Ordos Loop area as far as Gansu. Grousset,[34] probably describing the situation after the Xiongnu had been driven north, places the Chanyu on the upper Orkhon River near where Genghis Khan would later establish his capital of Karakorum. The Tuqi King of the Left lived in the east, probably on the high Kherlen River. The Tuqi King of the Right lived in the west, perhaps near present-day Uliastai in the Khangai Mountains.

In the winter of 200 BC, following a siege of Taiyuan, Emperor Gaozu of Han personally led a military campaign against Modun. At the Battle of Baideng, he was ambushed reputedly by 300,000 elite Xiongnu cavalry. The emperor was cut off from supplies and reinforcements for seven days, only narrowly escaping capture.

The Han Chinese sent princesses to marry Xiongnu leaders in their efforts to stop the border raids. Along with arranged marriages, the Han sent gifts to bribe the Xiongnu to stop attacking.[35] After the defeat at Pingcheng, the Han emperor abandoned a military solution to the Xiongnu threat. Instead, in 198BC, the courtier Liu Jing (zh) was dispatched for negotiations. The peace settlement eventually reached between the parties included a Han princess given in marriage to the chanyu (called heqinChinese: 和親; literally: "harmonious kinship"); periodic gifts to the Xiongnu of silk, distilled beverages and rice; equal status between the states; and the Great Wall as mutual border.

This first treaty set the pattern for relations between the Han and the Xiongnu for sixty years. Up to 135 BC, the treaty was renewed nine times, each time with an increase in the "gifts". In 192 BC, Modun even asked for the hand of Emperor Gao's widow Empress Lü Zhi. His son and successor, the energetic Jiyu, known as the Laoshang Chanyu, continued his father's expansionist policies. Laoshang succeeded in negotiating with Emperor Wen terms for the maintenance of a large scale government sponsored market system.

While the Xiongnu benefited handsomely, from the Chinese perspective marriage treaties were costly, humiliating, and ineffective. Laoshang showed that he did not take the peace treaty seriously. On one occasion his scouts penetrated to a point near Chang'an. In 166 BC he personally led 140,000 cavalry to invade Anding, reaching as far as the imperial retreat at Yong. In 158 BC, his successor sent 30,000 cavalry to attack Shangdang and another 30,000 to Yunzhong.[citation needed]

The Han dynasty made preparations for war when the Han Emperor Wu dispatched the explorer Zhang Qian to explore the mysterious kingdoms to the west and to form an alliance with the Yuezhi people in order to combat the Xiongnu. During this time Zhang married a Xiongnu wife, who bore him a son, and gained the trust of the Xiongnu leader.[44][45][46][47][48][49][50] While Zhang Qian did not succeed in this mission,[51] his reports of the west provided even greater incentive to counter the Xiongnu hold on westward routes out of China, and the Chinese prepared to mount a large scale attack using the Northern Silk Road to move men and material.

While Han China was making preparations for a military confrontation from the reign of Emperor Wen, the break did not come until 133 BC, following an abortive trap to ambush the chanyu at Mayi. By that point the empire was consolidated politically, militarily and economically, and was led by an adventurous pro-war faction at court. In that year, Emperor Wu reversed the decision he had made the year before to renew the peace treaty.

Full-scale war broke out in autumn 129 BC, when 40,000 Chinese cavalry made a surprise attack on the Xiongnu at the border markets. In 127 BC, the Han general Wei Qing retook the Ordos. In 121 BC, the Xiongnu suffered another setback when Huo Qubing led a force of light cavalry westward out of Longxi and within six days fought his way through five Xiongnu kingdoms. The Xiongnu Hunye king was forced to surrender with 40,000 men. In 119 BC both Huo and Wei, each leading 50,000 cavalrymen and 100,000 footsoldiers (in order to keep up with the mobility of the Xiongnu, many of the non-cavalry Han soldiers were mobile infantrymen who traveled on horseback but fought on foot), and advancing along different routes, forced the chanyu and his court to flee north of the Gobi Desert.[52][page needed] Major logistical difficulties limited the duration and long-term continuation of these campaigns. According to the analysis of Yan You (嚴尤), the difficulties were twofold. Firstly there was the problem of supplying food across long distances. Secondly, the weather in the northern Xiongnu lands was difficult for Han soldiers, who could never carry enough fuel.[a] According to official reports, the Xiongnu lost 80,000 to 90,000 men, and out of the 140,000 horses the Han forces had brought into the desert, fewer than 30,000 returned to China.

As a result of these battles, the Chinese controlled the strategic region from the Ordos and Gansu corridor to Lop Nor. They succeeded in separating the Xiongnu from the Qiang peoples to the south, and also gained direct access to the Western Regions. Because of strong Chinese control over the Xiongnu, the Xiongnu became unstable and were no longer a threat to the Han Chinese.[54]

Xiongnu among other people in Asia around 1 AD.

Ban Chao, Protector General (都護; Duhu) of the Han dynasty, embarked with an army of 70,000 men in a campaign against the Xiongnu insurgents who were harassing the trade route now known as the Silk Road. His successful military campaign saw the subjugation of one Xiongnu tribe after another. Ban Chao also sent an envoy named Gan Ying to Daqin (Rome). Ban Chao was created the Marquess of Dingyuan (定遠侯, i.e., "the Marquess who stabilized faraway places") for his services to the Han Empire and returned to the capital Luoyang at the age of 70 years and died there in the year 102. Following his death, the power of the Xiongnu in the Western Regions increased again, and the emperors of subsequent dynasties were never again able to reach so far to the west.[55]

When a Chanyu died, power could pass to his younger brother if his son was not of age. This system, which can be compared to Gaelic tanistry, normally kept an adult male on the throne, but could cause trouble in later generations when there were several lineages that might claim the throne. When the 12th Chanyu died in 60 BC, power was taken by Woyanqudi, a grandson of the 12th Chanyu's cousin. Being something of a usurper, he tried to put his own men in power, which only increased the number of his enemies. The 12th Chanyu's son fled east and, in 58 BC, revolted. Few would support Woyanqudi and he was driven to suicide, leaving the rebel son, Huhanye, as the 14th Chanyu. The Woyanqudi faction then set up his brother, Tuqi, as Chanyu (58 BC). In 57 BC three more men declared themselves Chanyu. Two dropped their claims in favor of the third who was defeated by Tuqi in that year and surrendered to Huhanye the following year. In 56 BC Tuqi was defeated by Huhanye and committed suicide, but two more claimants appeared: Runzhen and Huhanye's elder brother Zhizhi Chanyu. Runzhen was killed by Zhizhi in 54 BC, leaving only Zhizhi and Huhanye. Zhizhi grew in power, and, in 53 BC, Huhanye moved south and submitted to the Chinese. Huhanye used Chinese support to weaken Zhizhi, who gradually moved west. In 49 BC, a brother to Tuqi set himself up as Chanyu and was killed by Zhizhi. In 36 BC, Zhizhi was killed by a Chinese army while trying to establish a new kingdom in the far west near Lake Balkhash.

Bronze seal says "To Han obedient, friendly and loyal chief of Xiongnu of Han (漢匈奴歸義親漢長)"．Bronze seal conferred by the Eastern Han government on a Xiongnu chief.

In 53 BC Huhanye (呼韓邪) decided to enter into tributary relations with Han China.[56] The original terms insisted on by the Han court were that, first, the chanyu or his representatives should come to the capital to pay homage; secondly, the chanyu should send a hostage prince; and thirdly, the chanyu should present tribute to the Han emperor. The political status of the Xiongnu in the Chinese world order was reduced from that of a "brotherly state" to that of an "outer vassal" (外臣). During this period, however, the Xiongnu maintained political sovereignty and full territorial integrity. The Great Wall of China continued to serve as the line of demarcation between Han and Xiongnu.

Huhanye sent his son, the "wise king of the right" Shuloujutang, to the Han court as hostage. In 51 BC he personally visited Chang'an to pay homage to the emperor on the Lunar New Year. In the same year, another envoy Qijushan (稽居狦) was received at the Sweet Spring Palace in the north west of modern Shanxi.[57] On the financial side, Huhanye was amply rewarded in large quantities of gold, cash, clothes, silk, horses and grain for his participation. Huhanye made two further homage trips, in 49 BC and 33 BC; with each one the imperial gifts were increased. On the last trip, Huhanye took the opportunity to ask to be allowed to become an imperial son-in-law. As a sign of the decline in the political status of the Xiongnu, Emperor Yuan refused, giving him instead five ladies-in-waiting. One of them was Wang Zhaojun, famed in Chinese folklore as one of the Four Beauties.

When Zhizhi learned of his brother's submission, he also sent a son to the Han court as hostage in 53 BC. Then twice, in 51 BC and 50 BC, he sent envoys to the Han court with tribute. But having failed to pay homage personally, he was never admitted to the tributary system. In 36 BC, a junior officer named Chen Tang, with the help of Gan Yanshou, protector-general of the Western Regions, assembled an expeditionary force that defeated him at the Battle of Zhizhi and sent his head as a trophy to Chang'an.

Tributary relations were discontinued during the reign of Huduershi (18 AD–48), corresponding to the political upheavals of the Xin Dynasty in China. The Xiongnu took the opportunity to regain control of the western regions, as well as neighbouring peoples such as the Wuhuan. In 24 AD, Hudershi even talked about reversing the tributary system.

The Xiongnu's new power was met with a policy of appeasement by Emperor Guangwu. At the height of his power, Huduershi even compared himself to his illustrious ancestor, Modu. Due to growing regionalism among the Xiongnu, however, Huduershi was never able to establish unquestioned authority. In contravention of a principle of fraternal succession established by Huhanye, Huduershi designated his son Punu as heir-apparent. However, as the eldest son of the preceding chanyu, Bi (Pi) – the Rizhu King of the Right – had a more legitimate claim. Consequently, Bi refused to attend the annual meeting at the chanyu's court. Nevertheless, in 46 AD, Punu ascended the throne.

In 48 AD, a confederation of eight Xiongnu tribes in Bi's power base in the south, with a military force totalling 40,000 to 50,000 men, seceded from Punu's kingdom and acclaimed Bi as chanyu. This kingdom became known as the Southern Xiongnu.

The rump kingdom under Punu, around the Orkhon (modern north central Mongolia) became known as the Northern Xiongnu. Punu, who became known as the Northern Chanyu, began to put military pressure on the Southern Xiongnu.

In 49 AD, Tsi Yung, a Han governor of Liaodong, allied with the Wuhuan and Xianbei, attacked the Northern Xiongnu.[58]
The Northern Xiongnu suffered two major defeats: one at the hands of the Xianbei in 85 AD, and by the Han during the Battle of Ikh Bayan, in 89 AD. The northern chanyu fled to the north-west with his subjects.

In about 155 AD, the Northern Xiongnu were decisively "crushed and subjugated" by the Xianbei.[59]

Southern and Northern Xiongnu in 200 AD, before the collapse of the Han Dynasty.

Coincidentally, the Southern Xiongnu were plagued by natural disasters and misfortunes – in addition to the threat posed by Punu. Consequently, in 50 AD, the Southern Xiongnu submitted to tributary relations with Han China. The system of tribute was considerably tightened by the Han, to keep the Southern Xiongnu under control. The chanyu was ordered to establish his court in the Meiji district of Xihe commandery and the Southern Xiongnu were resettled in eight frontier commanderies. At the same time, large numbers of Chinese were also resettled in these commanderies, in mixed Han-Xiongnu settlements.
Economically, the Southern Xiongnu became reliant on trade with the Han.

Tensions were evident between Han settlers and practitioners of the nomadic way of life. Thus, in 94, Anguo Chanyu joined forces with newly subjugated Xiongnu from the north and started a large scale rebellion against the Han.

During the late 2nd century AD, the southern Xiongnu were drawn into the rebellions then plaguing the Han court. In 188, the chanyu was murdered by some of his own subjects for agreeing to send troops to help the Han suppress a rebellion in Hebei – many of the Xiongnu feared that it would set a precedent for unending military service to the Han court. The murdered chanyu's son Yufuluo, entitled Chizhisizhu (持至尸逐侯), succeeded him, but was then overthrown by the same rebellious faction in 189. He travelled to Luoyang (the Han capital) to seek aid from the Han court, but at this time the Han court was in disorder from the clash between Grand General He Jin and the eunuchs, and the intervention of the warlord Dong Zhuo. The chanyu had no choice but to settle down with his followers in Pingyang, a city in Shanxi. In 195, he died and was succeeded as chanyu by his brother Huchuquan Chanyu.

In 215–216 AD, the warlord-statesman Cao Cao detained Huchuquan Chanyuin the city of Ye, and divided his followers in Shanxi into five divisions: left, right, south, north, and centre. This was aimed at preventing the exiled Xiongnu in Shanxi from engaging in rebellion, and also allowed Cao Cao to use the Xiongnu as auxiliaries in his cavalry.

Later the Xiongnu aristocracy in Shanxi changed their surname from Luanti to Liu for prestige reasons, claiming that they were related to the Han imperial clan through the old intermarriage policy.
After Huchuquan, the Southern Xiongnu were partitioned into five local tribes. Each local chief was under the "surveillance of a chinese resident", while the shanyu was in "semicaptivity at the imperial court."[60]

North China came under Xiongnu rule while the remnants of the Jin dynasty survived in the south at Jiankang.[61]

The reign of Liu Yao (318–329)

In 318, after suppressing a coup by a powerful minister in the Xiongnu-Han court, in which the emperor and a large proportion of the aristocracy were massacred), the Xiongnu prince Liu Yao moved the Xiongnu-Han capital from Pingyang to Chang'an and renamed the dynasty as Zhao (Liu Yuan had declared the empire's name Han to create a linkage with Han Dynasty—to which he claimed he was a descendant, through a princess, but Liu Yao felt that it was time to end the linkage with Han and explicitly restore the linkage to the great Xiongnu chanyu Maodun, and therefore decided to change the name of the state. (However, this was not a break from Liu Yuan, as he continued to honor Liu Yuan and Liu Cong posthumously; it is hence known to historians collectively as Han Zhao).

However, the eastern part of north China came under the control of a rebel Xiongnu-Han general of Jie ancestry named Shi Le. Liu Yao and Shi Le fought a long war until 329, when Liu Yao was captured in battle and executed. Chang'an fell to Shi Le soon after, and the Xiongnu dynasty was wiped out. North China was ruled by Shi Le's Later Zhao dynasty for the next 20 years.[62]

However, the "Liu" Xiongnu remained active in the north for at least another century.

The northern Tiefu branch of the Xiongnu gained control of the Inner Mongolian region in the 10 years between the conquest of the TuobaXianbeistate of Dai by the Former Qin empire in 376, and its restoration in 386 as the Northern Wei. After 386, the Tiefu were gradually destroyed by or surrendered to the Tuoba, with the submitting Tiefu becoming known as the Dugu. Liu Bobo, a surviving prince of the Tiefu fled to the Ordos Loop, where he founded a state called the Xia (thus named because of the Xiongnu's supposed ancestry from the Xia dynasty) and changed his surname to Helian (赫連). The Helian-Xia state was conquered by the Northern Wei in 428–31, and the Xiongnu thenceforth effectively ceased to play a major role in Chinese history, assimilating into the Xianbei and Han ethnicities.

The ruined city was discovered in 1996[63] and the State Council designated it as a cultural relic under top state protection. The repair of the Yong'an Platform, where Helian Bobo, emperor of the Da Xia regime, reviewed parading troops, has been finished and restoration on the 31-meter-tall turret follows.[64][65][page needed]

The Juqu were a branch of the Xiongnu. Their leader Juqu Mengxun took over the Northern Liang by overthrowing the former puppet ruler Duan Ye. By 439, the Juqu power was destroyed by the Northern Wei. Their remnants were then settled in the city of Gaochang before being destroyed by the Rouran.

Barfield[66] attempted to interpret Xiongnu history as well as narrate it. He made the following points: The Xiongnu confederation was unusually long-lived for a steppe empire. The purpose of raiding China was not simply for goods, but to force the Chinese to pay regular tribute. The power of the Xiongnu ruler was based on his control of Chinese tribute which he used to reward his supporters. The Han and Xiongnu empires rose at the same time because the Xiongnu state depended on Chinese tribute. A major Xiongnu weakness was the custom of lateral succession. If a dead ruler's son was not old enough to take command, power passed to the late ruler's brother. This worked in the first generation but could lead to civil war in the second generation. The first time this happened, in 60 BC, the weaker party adopted what Barfield calls the 'inner frontier strategy.' They moved south and submitted to China and then used Chinese resources to defeat the Northern Xiongnu and re-establish the empire. The second time this happened, about 47 AD, the strategy failed. The southern ruler was unable to defeat the northern ruler and the Xiongnu remained divided.

The sound of the first Chinese character (匈) has been reconstructed as /qʰoŋ/ in Old Chinese.[67] The Chinese name for the Xiongnu was a pejorative term in itself, as the characters have the meaning of "fierce slave".[30] The Chinese characters are pronounced as Xiōngnú[ɕjʊ́ŋnǔ] in modern Mandarin Chinese.

The supposed Old Chinese sound of the first character (匈) has a possible similarity with the name "Hun" in European languages. The second character (奴) appears to have no parallel in Western terminology. Whether the similarity is evidence of kinship or mere coincidence is hard to tell. It could lend credence to the theory that the Huns were in fact descendants of the Northern Xiongnu who migrated westward, or that the Huns were using a name borrowed from the Northern Xiongnu, or that these Xiongnu made up part of the Hun confederation.

The Xiongnu-Hun hypothesis originated with the 18th-century French historian Joseph de Guignes, who noticed that ancient Chinese scholars had referred to members of tribes associated with the Xiongnu by names similar to "Hun", albeit with varying Chinese characters. Étienne de la Vaissière has shown that, in the Sogdian script used in the so-called "Sogdian Ancient Letters", both the Xiongnu and Huns were referred to as γwn (xwn), indicating that the two were synonymous.[68] Although the theory that the Xiongnu were precursors of the Huns known later in Europe is now accepted by many scholars, it has yet to become a consensus view. The identification with the Huns may be either incorrect or an oversimplification (as would appear to be the case with a proto-Mongol people, the Rouran, who have sometimes been linked to the Avars of Central Europe).

In the UNESCO-published History of Civilizations of Central Asia, its editor János Harmatta concludes that the royal tribes and kings of the Xiongnu bore Iranian names, that all Xiongnu words noted by the Chinese can be explained from a Scythian language, and that it is therefore clear that the majority of Hsiung-nu tribes spoke an Eastern Iranian language.[8]

Lajos Ligeti was the first to suggest that the Xiongnu spoke a Yeniseian language. In the early 1960s Edwin Pulleyblank was the first to expand upon this idea with credible evidence. In 2000, Alexander Vovin reanalyzed Pulleyblank's argument and found further support for it by utilizing the most recent reconstruction of Old Chinese phonology by Starostin and Baxter and a single Chinese transcription of a sentence in the language of the Jie people, a member tribe of the Xiongnu Confederacy. Previous Turkic interpretations of the aforementioned sentence do not match the Chinese translation as precisely as using Yeniseian grammar.[83] Pulleybank and D. N. Keightley asserted that the Xiongnu titles "were originally Siberian words but were later borrowed by the Turkic and Mongolic peoples".[84] The Xiongnu language gave to the later Turkic and Mongolian empires a number of important culture words including Turkish tängri, Mongolian tenggeri, was originally the Xiongnu word for “heaven”, chengli (tháːŋ-wrə́j). Titles such as tarqan and tegin and kaghan were also inherited from the Xiongnu language.[85]

Since the early 19th century, a number of Western scholars have proposed a connection between various language families or subfamilies and the language or languages of the Xiongnu. Albert Terrien de Lacouperie considered them to be multi-component groups.[16] Many scholars believe the Xiongnu confederation was a mixture of different ethno-linguistic groups, and that their main language (as represented in the Chinese sources) and its relationships have not yet been satisfactorily determined.[86] Kim rejects "old racial theories or even ethnic affiliations" in favour of the "historical reality of these extensive, multiethnic, polyglot steppe empires".[87]

The Turkologist Gerhard Doerfer has denied any possibility of a relationship between the Xiongnu language and any other known language and rejected in the strongest terms any connection with Turkic or Mongolian.[103]

The original geographic location of the Xiongnu is disputed among steppe archaeologists. Since the 1960s, the geographic origin of the Xiongnu has attempted to be traced through an analysis of Early Iron Age burial constructions. No region has been proven to have mortuary practices that clearly match that of the Xiongnu.[105]

Political center of the Xiongnu state was in Mongolia and almost all of the Xiongnu kings buried in Mongolia.[106][107]

In the 1920s, Pyotr Kozlov's excavations of the royal tombs at the Noin-Ula burial site in northern Mongolia that date to around the first century CE provided a glimpse into the lost world of the Xiongnu. Other archaeological sites have been unearthed in Inner Mongolia and elsewhere; they represent the Neolithic and historical periods of the Xiongnu's history.[108] Those included the Ordos culture, many of them had been identified as the Xiongnu cultures. The region was occupied predominantly by peoples showing Mongoloid features, known from their skeletal remains and artifacts. Portraits found in the Noin-Ula excavations demonstrate other cultural evidences and influences, showing that Chinese and Xiongnu art have influenced each other mutually. Some of these embroidered portraits in the Noin-Ula kurgans also depict the Xiongnu with long braided hair with wide ribbons, which is seen to be identical with the Ashina clan hair-style.[109] Well-preserved bodies in Xiongnu and pre-Xiongnu tombs in the Mongolian Republic and southern Siberia show both Mongoloid and Caucasian features.[110] Analysis of skeletal remains from sites attributed to the Xiongnu provides an identification of dolichocephalic Mongoloid, ethnically distinct from neighboring populations in present-day Mongolia.[111] Russian and Chinese anthropological and craniofacial studies show that the Xiongnu were physically very heterogenous, with six different population clusters showing different degrees of Mongoloid and Caucasoid physical traits. These clusters point to significant cross-regional migrations (both east to west and west to east) that likely started in the Neolithic period and continued to the medieval Mongolian period.[11]

Xiongnu bow

Presently, there exist four fully excavated and well documented cemeteries: Ivolga,[112] Dyrestui,[113] Burkhan Tolgoi,[114][115] and Daodunzi.[116][117] Additionally thousands of tombs have been recorded in Transbaikalia and Mongolia. In addition to these, the Tamir 1 excavation site from a 2005 Silkroad Arkanghai Excavation Project is the only Xiongnu cemetery in Mongolia to be fully mapped in scale.[118] Tamir 1 was located on Tamiryn Ulaan Khoshuu, a prominent granitic outcrop near other cemeteries of the Neolithic, Bronze Age, and Mongol periods.[119] Important finds at the site included a lacquer bowl, glass beads, and three TLV mirrors. Archaeologists from this project believe that these artifacts paired with the general richness and size of the graves suggests that this cemetery was for more important or wealthy Xiongnu individuals.[119] The TLV mirrors are of particular interest. Three mirrors were acquired from three different graves at the site. The mirror found at feature 160 is believed to be a low-quality, local imitation of a Han mirror, while the whole mirror found at feature 100 and fragments of a mirror found at feature 109 are believed to belong to the classical TLV mirrors and date back to the Xin Dynasty or the early to middle Eastern Han period.[120] The archaeologists have chosen to, for the most part, refrain from positing anything about Han-Xiongnu relations based on these particular mirrors. However, they were willing to mention the following: "There is no clear indication of the ethnicity of this tomb occupant, but in a similar brick-chambered tomb of late Eastern Han period at the same cemetery, archaeologists discovered a bronze seal with the official title that the Han government bestowed upon the leader of the Xiongnu. The excavators suggested that these brick chamber tombs all belong to the Xiongnu (Qinghai 1993)."[120]

Classifications of these burial sites make distinction between two prevailing type of burials: "(1). monumental ramped terrace tombs which are often flanked by smaller "satellite" burials and (2) 'circular' or 'ring' burials."[121] Some scholars consider this a division between "elite" graves and "commoner" graves. Other scholars, find this division too simplistic and not evocative of a true distinction because it shows "ignorance of the nature of the mortuary investments and typically luxuriant burial assemblages [and does not account for] the discovery of other lesser interments that do not qualify as either of these types."[122]

Within the Xiongnu culture more variety is visible from site to site than from "era" to "era," in terms of the Chinese chronology, yet all form a whole that is distinct from that of the Han and other peoples of the non-Chinese north.[123] In some instances iconography can not be used as the main cultural identifier because art depicting animal predation is common among the steppe peoples. An example of animal predation associated with Xiongnu culture is a tiger carrying dead prey.[123] We see a similar image in work from Maoqinggou, a site which is presumed to have been under Xiongnu political control but is still clearly non-Xiongnu. From Maoqinggou, we see the prey replaced by an extension of the tiger's foot. The work also depicts a lower level of execution; Maoqinggou work was executed in a rounder, less detailed style.[123] In its broadest sense, Xiongnu iconography of animal predation include examples such as the gold headdress from Aluchaideng and gold earrings with a turquoise and jade inlay discovered in Xigouban, Inner Mongolia.[123] The gold headdress can be viewed, along with some other examples of Xiongnu art, from the external links at the bottom of this article.

Xiongnu art is harder to distinguish from Saka or Scythian art. There was a similarity present in stylistic execution, but Xiongnu art and Saka art did often differ in terms of iconography. Saka art does not appear to have included predation scenes, especially with dead prey, or same-animal combat. Additionally, Saka art included elements not common to Xiongnu iconography, such as a winged, horned horse.[123] The two cultures also used two different bird heads. Xiongnu depictions of birds have a tendency to have a moderate eye and beak and have ears, while Saka birds have a pronounced eye and beak and no ears.[123]:102–103 Some scholars[who?] claim these differences are indicative of cultural differences. Scholar Sophia-Karin Psarras claims that Xiongnu images of animal predation, specifically tiger plus prey, is spiritual, representative of death and rebirth, and same-animal combat is representative of the acquisition of or maintenance of power.[123]:102–103

The rock art of the Yin and Helan Mountains is dated from the 9th millennium BC to the 19th century AD. It consists mainly of engraved signs (petroglyphs) and only minimally of painted images.[124]

Excavations conducted between 1924 and 1925 in the Noin-Ula kurgans produced objects with over twenty carved characters, which were either identical or very similar to that of to the runic letters of the Old Turkic alphabet discovered in the Orkhon Valley. From this a some scholars hold that the Xiongnu had a script similar to Eurasian runiform and this alphabet itself served as the basis for the ancient Turkic writing.[125]

The Records of the Grand Historian (vol. 110) state that when the Xiongnu noted down something or transmitted a message, they made cuts on a piece of wood; they also mention a "Hu script".

Xiongnu were a nomadic people. From their lifestyle of herding flocks and their horse-trade with China, we can conclude that their diet consist mainly of mutton, horse meat and wild geese that were shot down.

In various kinds of ancient inscriptions on monuments of Munmu of Silla, it is recorded that King Silla came from Xiongnu. Also, there are some Korean researchers point out grave goods of Silla and Xiongnu are alike and also some researchers propose that Silla King is descended from Xiongnu.[126][127][128][129][130][131] About this, the Korean public broadcaster KBS has reported a documentary.[132][133][134]

^ abHarmatta 1994, p. 488: "Their royal tribes and kings (shan-yii) bore Iranian names and all the Hsiung-nu words noted by the Chinese can be explained from an Iranian language of Saka type. It is therefore clear that the majority of Hsiung-nu tribes spoke an Eastern Iranian language."

^Peter B. Golden (1992). "Chapter VI - The Uyğur Qağante (742-840)". An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples: Ethnogenesis and State-Formation in Medieval and Early Modern Eurasia and the Middle East. p. 155. ISBN978-3-447-03274-2.

Demattè, Paola. 2006. Writing the Landscape: Petroglyphs of Inner Mongolia and Ningxia Province (China). In: Beyond the steppe and the sown: proceedings of the 2002 University of Chicago Conference on Eurasian Archaeology, edited by David L. Peterson et al. Brill. Colloquia Pontica: series on the archaeology and ancient history of the Black Sea area; 13. 300-313. (Proceedings of the First International Conference of Eurasian Archaeology, University of Chicago, May 3–4, 2002.)

Hill, John E. (2009) Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty, 1st to 2nd Centuries CE. BookSurge, Charleston, South Carolina. ISBN978-1-4392-2134-1. (Especially pp. 69–74)

1.
Mongolia
–
Mongolia /mɒŋˈɡoʊliə/ is a landlocked unitary sovereign state in East Asia. Its area is equivalent with the historical territory of Outer Mongolia. It is sandwiched between China to the south and Russia to the north, while it does not share a border with Kazakhstan, Mongolia is separated from it by only 36.76 kilometers. At 1,564,116 square kilometers, Mongolia is the 18th largest and it is also the worlds second-largest landlocked country behind Kazakhstan and the largest landlocked country that does not border a closed sea. The country contains very little land, as much of its area is covered by grassy steppe, with mountains to the north and west. Ulaanbaatar, the capital and largest city, is home to about 45% of the countrys population, approximately 30% of the population is nomadic or semi-nomadic, horse culture is still integral. The majority of its population are Buddhists, the non-religious population is the second largest group. Islam is the dominant religion among ethnic Kazakhs, the majority of the states citizens are of Mongol ethnicity, although Kazakhs, Tuvans, and other minorities also live in the country, especially in the west. Mongolia joined the World Trade Organization in 1997 and seeks to expand its participation in regional economic, the area of what is now Mongolia has been ruled by various nomadic empires, including the Xiongnu, the Xianbei, the Rouran, the Turkic Khaganate, and others. In 1206, Genghis Khan founded the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history. His grandson Kublai Khan conquered China to establish the Yuan dynasty, after the collapse of the Yuan, the Mongols retreated to Mongolia and resumed their earlier pattern of factional conflict, except during the era of Dayan Khan and Tumen Zasagt Khan. In the 16th century, Tibetan Buddhism began to spread in Mongolia, being led by the Manchu-founded Qing dynasty. By the early 1900s, almost one-third of the male population were Buddhist monks. After the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911, Mongolia declared independence from the Qing dynasty, shortly thereafter, the country came under the control of the Soviet Union, which had aided its independence from China. In 1924, the Mongolian Peoples Republic was declared as a Soviet satellite state, after the anti-Communist revolutions of 1989, Mongolia conducted its own peaceful democratic revolution in early 1990. This led to a multi-party system, a new constitution of 1992, homo erectus inhabited Mongolia from 850,000 years ago. Modern humans reached Mongolia approximately 40,000 years ago during the Upper Paleolithic, the Khoit Tsenkher Cave in Khovd Province shows lively pink, brown, and red ochre paintings of mammoths, lynx, bactrian camels, and ostriches, earning it the nickname the Lascaux of Mongolia. The venus figurines of Malta testify to the level of Upper Paleolithic art in northern Mongolia, the wheeled vehicles found in the burials of the Afanasevans have been dated to before 2200 BC

2.
Manchuria
–
Manchuria is a modern name, first created by the Japanese, given to a large geographic region in Northeast Asia. Depending on the context, Manchuria can either refer to a region that falls entirely within the Peoples Republic of China, the definition of Manchuria can be any one of several regions of various size. These are, from smallest to largest, Northeast China, consisting of Heilongjiang, Jilin and this is the area referred to as Manchuria in the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions. Inner Manchuria, the above, plus parts of modern Inner Mongolia, The above, plus Outer Manchuria, the area from the Amur and Ussuri rivers to the Stanovoy Mountains, in Russian administrative terms, Ussuri krai, southern Harbin oblast, Primorskiy kray. The above, plus Sakhalin Island, which is included on Qing dynasty maps as part of Outer Manchuria even though it is not explicitly mentioned in the Treaty of Nerchinsk. The island was included in Manchuria on maps made by the Japanese Shogunate. Despite of lines on maps and empiress political claims, the island was inhabited by Ainu people until the Soviet Union enforced a policy after 1945. Three centuries and a half must now pass away before entering upon the act of the Manchu drama. During the ensuing two hundred years the Nü-chêns were scarcely heard of, the House of Ming being busily occupied in other directions and it may be noted here that Manchuria is unknown to the Chinese or to the Manchus themselves as a geographical expression. The present extensive home of the Manchus is usually spoken of as the Three Eastern Provinces, namely, Shêngking, or Liao-tung, or Kuan-tung, Kirin, and Heilungchiang or Tsitsihar. — Herbert A. Giles, China and the Manchus,1912 Manchuria is a translation of the Japanese word Manshū, the Manchu and Chinese languages had no such word as Manchuria and the word has imperialist connotations. According to Bill Sewell, it was Europeans who first started using the name Manchuria to refer to the location, the historian Gavan McCormack agreed with Robert H. G. The Japanese had their own motive for deliberately spreading the usage of the term Manchuria, the historian Norman Smith wrote that The term Manchuria is controversial. Professor Mariko Asano Tamanoi said that she should use the term in quotation marks when referring to Manchuria, in his 2012 dissertation on the Jurchen people to obtain a Doctor of Philosophy degree in History from the University of Washington, Professor Chad D. In the 18th-century Europe, the later known as Manchuria was most commonly referred to as Tartary. However, the term Manchuria started appearing by the end of the century, in current Chinese parlance, an inhabitant of the Northeast, or Northeast China, is a Northeasterner. In China, the term Manchuria is rarely used today, and this usage is seen in the expression Chuǎng Guāndōng referring to the mass migration of Han Chinese to Manchuria in the 19th and 20th centuries. The name Guandong later came to be used more narrowly for the area of the Kwantung Leased Territory on the Liaodong Peninsula and it is not to be confused with the southern province of Guangdong

3.
Xinjiang
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Xinjiang, officially the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, is a provincial-level autonomous region of China in the northwest of the country. It is the largest Chinese administrative division and the 8th largest country subdivision in the world and it contains the disputed territory of Aksai Chin, which is administered by China. Xinjiang borders the countries of Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the rugged Karakoram, Kunlun, and Tian Shan mountain ranges occupy much of Xinjiangs borders, as well as its western and southern regions. Xinjiang also borders Tibet Autonomous Region and the provinces of Gansu, the most well-known route of the historical Silk Road ran through the territory from the east to its northwestern border. In recent decades, abundant oil and mineral reserves have been found in Xinjiang and it is home to a number of ethnic groups, including the Han, Kazakhs, Tajiks, Hui, Uyghur, Kyrgyz, Mongols, and Russians. More than a dozen autonomous prefectures and counties for minorities are in Xinjiang, older English-language reference works often refer to the area as Chinese Turkestan. Xinjiang is divided into the Dzungarian Basin in the north and the Tarim Basin in the south by a mountain range, only about 4. 3% of Xinjiangs land area is fit for human habitation. With a documented history of at least 2,500 years, the territory came under the rule of the Qing dynasty in the 18th century, which was later replaced by the Republic of China government. Since 1949, it has been part of the Peoples Republic of China following the Chinese Civil War, in 1954, Xinjiang Bingtuan was set up to strengthen the border defense against the Soviet Union, and also promote the local economy. In 1955, Xinjiang was turned into a region from a province. In the last decades, there have been tensions regarding Xinjiangs political status, amnesty International said that activists in Xinjiang have been arrested and tortured. Under the Han dynasty, which drove the Xiongnu empire out of the region in 60 BC, Xinjiang was previously known as Xiyu or Qurighar and this was in an effort to secure the profitable routes of the Silk Road. Dzungaria was known as Zhunbu and the Tarim Basin was known as Huijiang during the Qing dynasty before both regions were merged and became the region of Gansu Xinjiang, later simplified as Xinjiang. The name Xinjiang, which literally means New Frontier or New Borderland, was given during the Qing dynasty, according to the Chinese statesman Zuo Zongtangs report to the Emperor of Qing, Xinjiang means an old land newly returned. For instance, present-day Jinchuan County was known as Jinchuan Xinjiang, in the same manner, present-day Xinjiang was known as Xiyu Xinjiang and Gansu Xinjiang. After 1821, the Qing changed the names of the other regained regions, the name East Turkestan was created by Russian sinologist Hyacinth to replace the term Chinese Turkestan in 1829. East Turkestan was used traditionally to only refer to the Tarim Basin, in 1955, Xinjiang province was renamed Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The name that was proposed was simply Xinjiang Autonomous Region

4.
Kazakhstan
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Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in northern Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Kazakhstan is the worlds largest landlocked country, and the ninth largest in the world, Kazakhstan is the dominant nation of Central Asia economically, generating 60% of the regions GDP, primarily through its oil/gas industry. It also has vast mineral resources, Kazakhstan is officially a democratic, secular, unitary, constitutional republic with a diverse cultural heritage. Kazakhstan shares borders with Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, the terrain of Kazakhstan includes flatlands, steppe, taiga, rock canyons, hills, deltas, snow-capped mountains, and deserts. Kazakhstan has an estimated 18 million people as of 2014, Given its large area, its population density is among the lowest. The capital is Astana, where it was moved in 1997 from Almaty, the territory of Kazakhstan has historically been inhabited by nomadic tribes. This changed in the 13th century, when Genghis Khan occupied the country as part of the Mongolian Empire, following internal struggles among the conquerors, power eventually reverted to the nomads. By the 16th century, the Kazakh emerged as a distinct group, the Russians began advancing into the Kazakh steppe in the 18th century, and by the mid-19th century, they nominally ruled all of Kazakhstan as part of the Russian Empire. Following the 1917 Russian Revolution, and subsequent civil war, the territory of Kazakhstan was reorganised several times, in 1936, it was made the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, part of the Soviet Union. Kazakhstan was the last of the Soviet republics to declare independence during the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Kazakhstan has worked to develop its economy, especially its dominant hydrocarbon industry. Kazakhstans 131 ethnicities include Kazakhs, Russians, Uzbeks, Ukrainians, Germans, Tatars, the Kazakh language is the state language, and Russian has equal official status for all levels of administrative and institutional purposes. The name Kazakh comes from the ancient Turkic word qaz, to wander, the name Cossack is of the same origin. The Persian suffix -stan means land or place of, so Kazakhstan can be translated as land of the wanderers. Kazakhstan has been inhabited since the Neolithic Age, the regions climate, archaeologists believe that humans first domesticated the horse in the regions vast steppes. Central Asia was originally inhabited by the Scythians, the Cuman entered the steppes of modern-day Kazakhstan around the early 11th century, where they later joined with the Kipchak and established the vast Cuman-Kipchak confederation. Under the Mongol Empire, the largest in history, administrative districts were established. These eventually came under the rule of the emergent Kazakh Khanate, throughout this period, traditional nomadic life and a livestock-based economy continued to dominate the steppe. Nevertheless, the region was the focus of ever-increasing disputes between the native Kazakh emirs and the neighbouring Persian-speaking peoples to the south, at its height the Khanate would rule parts of Central Asia and control Cumania

5.
Kyrgyzstan
–
Kyrgyzstan, officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a country in Central Asia. Landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west and southwest, Tajikistan to the southwest and its capital and largest city is Bishkek. Kyrgyzstans recorded history spans over 2,000 years, encompassing a variety of cultures and empires, ethnic Kyrgyz make up the majority of the countrys 5.7 million people, followed by significant minorities of Uzbeks and Russians. Kyrgyz is closely related to other Turkic languages, although Russian remains widely spoken and is the official language, the majority of the population are non-denominational Muslims. In addition to its Turkic origins, Kyrgyz culture bears elements of Persian, Mongolian and Russian influence. Kyrgyz is believed to have derived from the Turkic word for forty, in reference to the forty clans of Manas. Literally, Kyrgyz means We are forty, at the time, in the early 9th century AD, the Uyghurs dominated much of Central Asia, Mongolia, and parts of Russia and China. King, Scythians were early settlers in present-day Kyrgyzstan, the Kyrgyz state reached its greatest expansion after defeating the Uyghur Khaganate in 840 A. D. From the 10th century the Kyrgyz migrated as far as the Tian Shan range, in the twelfth century the Kyrgyz dominion had shrunk to the Altay Range and Sayan Mountains as a result of the Mongol expansion. With the rise of the Mongol Empire in the thirteenth century, the Kyrgyz peacefully became a part of the Mongol Empire in 1207. The descent of the Kyrgyz from the autochthonous Siberian population is confirmed on the hand by the recent genetic studies. Issyk Kul Lake was a stopover on the Silk Road, a route for traders, merchants. Kyrgyz tribes were overrun in the 17th century by the Mongols, in the century by the Manchurian Qing Dynasty. In the late century, the majority part of what is today Kyrgyzstan was ceded to Russia through two treaties between China and Russia. The territory, then known in Russian as Kirghizia, was incorporated into the Russian Empire in 1876. The Russian takeover was met with numerous revolts against Tsarist authority, in addition, the suppression of the 1916 rebellion against Russian rule in Central Asia caused many Kyrgyz later to migrate to China. Soviet power was established in the region in 1919. On 5 December 1936, the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic was established as a republic of the Soviet Union

6.
Inner Mongolia
–
Its capital is Hohhot, and other major cities include Baotou, Chifeng, and Ordos. It is the third largest subdivision of China, spanning approximately 1,200,000 km2 or 12% of Chinas total land area and it recorded a population of 24,706,321 in the 2010 census, accounting for 1. 84% of Mainland Chinas total population. Inner Mongolia is the countrys 23rd most populous province-level division, the majority of the population in the region is Han Chinese, with a sizeable titular Mongol minority. In Chinese, the region is known as Inner Mongolia, where the terms of Inner/Outer are derived from Manchu dorgi/tulergi. The term Inner 内 referred to the Nei Fan 内番, i. e. those descendants of Genghis Khan who granted the title khan in Ming and Qing Dynasties and lived in part of southern part of Mongolia. In recent years, some Mongols began to call Inner Mongolia Nan Menggu, literally South Mongolia, much of what is known about the history of Greater Mongolia, including Inner Mongolia, is known through Chinese chronicles and historians. Slab Grave cultural monuments are found in northern, central and eastern Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, north-western China, Mongolian scholars prove that this culture related to the Proto-Mongols. During the Zhou Dynasty, central and western Inner Mongolia were inhabited by peoples such as the Loufan, Linhu. During the Warring States period, King Wuling of the state of Zhao based in what is now Hebei, after destroying the Dí state of Zhongshan in what is now Hebei province, he defeated the Linhu and Loufan and created the commandery of Yunzhong near modern Hohhot. King Wuling of Zhao also built a long wall stretching through the Hetao region and he also maintained two commanderies in the region, Jiuyuan and Yunzhong, and moved 30,000 households there to solidify the region. After the Qin Dynasty collapsed in 206 BC, these efforts were abandoned, during the Western Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu sent the general Wei Qing to reconquer the Hetao region from the Xiongnu in 127 BC. After the conquest, Emperor Wu continued the policy of building settlements in Hetao to defend against the Xiong-Nu, in that same year he established the commanderies of Shuofang and Wuyuan in Hetao. At the same time, what is now eastern Inner Mongolia was controlled by the Xianbei, during the Eastern Han Dynasty, Xiongnu who surrendered to the Han Dynasty began to be settled in Hetao, and intermingled with the Han immigrants in the area. Hetao was then taken over by the Khitan Empire, founded by the Khitans and they were followed by the Western Xia of the Tanguts, who took control of what is now the western part of Inner Mongolia. The Khitans were later replaced by the Jurchens, precursors to the modern Manchus, after Genghis Khan unified the Mongol tribes in 1206 and founded the Mongol Empire, the Tangut Western Xia empire was ultimately conquered in 1227, and the Jurchen Jin dynasty fell in 1234. In 1271, Kublai Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan established the Yuan dynasty, Kublai Khans summer capital Shangdu was located near present-day Dolonnor. During that time Ongud and Khunggirad peoples dominated the area of what is now Inner Mongolia, after the Yuan dynasty was overthrown by the Han-led Ming dynasty in 1368, the Ming captured parts of Inner Mongolia including Shangdu and Yingchang. The Ming rebuilt the Great Wall of China at its present location, the Ming established the Three Guards composed of the Mongols there

7.
Gansu
–
Gansu is a province of the Peoples Republic of China, located in the northwest of the country. It lies between the Tibetan and Loess plateaus, and borders Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Ningxia to the north, Xinjiang and Qinghai to the west, Sichuan to the south, the Yellow River passes through the southern part of the province. Gansu has a population of 26 million and covers an area of 425,800 square kilometres, the capital is Lanzhou, located in the southeast part of the province. Gansu is a compound of the names of Ganzhou and Suzhou, Gansu is abbreviated as 甘 or 陇, and is also known as Longxi or Longyou, in reference to the Long Mountain east of Gansu. Gansu is a name first used during the Song dynasty of two Sui and Tang dynasty prefectures, Gan and Su. In prehistoric times, Gansu was host to Neolithic cultures, the Dadiwan culture, from where archaeologically significant artifacts have been excavated, flourished in the eastern end of Gansu from about 6000 BC to about 3000 BC. The Majiayao culture and part of the Qijia culture took root in Gansu from 3100 BC to 2700 BC and 2400 BC to 1900 BC respectively, the Yuezhi originally lived in the very western part of Gansu until they were forced to emigrate by the Xiongnu around 177 BCE. The State of Qin, later to become the state of the Chinese empire, grew out from the southeastern part of Gansu. The Qin name is believed to have originated, in part, Qin tombs and artifacts have been excavated from Fangmatan near Tianshui, including one 2200-year-old map of Guixian County. In imperial times, Gansu was an important strategic outpost and communications link for the Chinese empire, the Han dynasty extended the Great Wall across this corridor, building the strategic Yumenguan and Yangguan fort towns along it. Remains of the wall and the towns can be found there, the Ming dynasty built the Jiayuguan outpost in Gansu. By the Qingshui treaty, concluded in 823 between the Tibetan Empire and the Tang dynasty, China lost a part of Gansu province for a significant period. After the fall of the Uyghur Empire, an Uyghur state was established in parts of Gansu that lasted from 848 to 1036 AD, during that time, many of Gansus residents were converted to Islam. Along the Silk Road, Gansu was an important province. Temples and Buddhist grottoes such as those at Mogao Caves and Maijishan Caves contain artistically and historically revealing murals. An early form of paper inscribed with Chinese characters and dating to about 8 BC was discovered at the site of a Western Han garrison near the Yumen pass in August 2006, the province was also the origin of the Dungan Revolt of 1862-77. Among the Qing forces were Muslim generals like Ma Zhanao and Ma Anliang who helped Qing crush the rebel Muslims, the revolt spread into Gansu from neighbouring Qinghai. Frequent earthquakes, droughts and famines have tended to slow progress of the province until recently

8.
Chinese language
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Chinese is a group of related, but in many cases mutually unintelligible, language varieties, forming a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Chinese is spoken by the Han majority and many ethnic groups in China. Nearly 1.2 billion people speak some form of Chinese as their first language, the varieties of Chinese are usually described by native speakers as dialects of a single Chinese language, but linguists note that they are as diverse as a language family. The internal diversity of Chinese has been likened to that of the Romance languages, There are between 7 and 13 main regional groups of Chinese, of which the most spoken by far is Mandarin, followed by Wu, Min, and Yue. Most of these groups are mutually unintelligible, although some, like Xiang and certain Southwest Mandarin dialects, may share common terms, all varieties of Chinese are tonal and analytic. Standard Chinese is a form of spoken Chinese based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin. It is the language of China and Taiwan, as well as one of four official languages of Singapore. It is one of the six languages of the United Nations. The written form of the language, based on the logograms known as Chinese characters, is shared by literate speakers of otherwise unintelligible dialects. Of the other varieties of Chinese, Cantonese is the spoken language and official in Hong Kong and Macau. It is also influential in Guangdong province and much of Guangxi, dialects of Southern Min, part of the Min group, are widely spoken in southern Fujian, with notable variants also spoken in neighboring Taiwan and in Southeast Asia. Hakka also has a diaspora in Taiwan and southeast Asia. Shanghainese and other Wu varieties are prominent in the lower Yangtze region of eastern China, Chinese can be traced back to a hypothetical Sino-Tibetan proto-language. The first written records appeared over 3,000 years ago during the Shang dynasty, as the language evolved over this period, the various local varieties became mutually unintelligible. In reaction, central governments have sought to promulgate a unified standard. Difficulties have included the great diversity of the languages, the lack of inflection in many of them, in addition, many of the smaller languages are spoken in mountainous areas that are difficult to reach, and are often also sensitive border zones. Without a secure reconstruction of proto-Sino-Tibetan, the structure of the family remains unclear. A top-level branching into Chinese and Tibeto-Burman languages is often assumed, the earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones from around 1250 BCE in the late Shang dynasty

9.
Standard Chinese
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Its pronunciation is based on the Beijing dialect, its vocabulary on the Mandarin dialects, and its grammar is based on written vernacular Chinese. Like other varieties of Chinese, Standard Chinese is a language with topic-prominent organization. It has more initial consonants but fewer vowels, final consonants, Standard Chinese is an analytic language, though with many compound words. There exist two standardised forms of the language, namely Putonghua in Mainland China and Guoyu in Taiwan, aside from a number of differences in pronunciation and vocabulary, Putonghua is written using simplified Chinese characters, while Guoyu is written using traditional Chinese characters. There are many characters that are identical between the two systems, in English, the governments of China and Hong Kong use Putonghua, Putonghua Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, and Mandarin, while those of Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia, use Mandarin. The name Putonghua also has a long, albeit unofficial, history and it was used as early as 1906 in writings by Zhu Wenxiong to differentiate a modern, standard Chinese from classical Chinese and other varieties of Chinese. For some linguists of the early 20th century, the Putonghua, or common tongue/speech, was different from the Guoyu. The former was a prestige variety, while the latter was the legal standard. Based on common understandings of the time, the two were, in fact, different, Guoyu was understood as formal vernacular Chinese, which is close to classical Chinese. By contrast, Putonghua was called the speech of the modern man. The use of the term Putonghua by left-leaning intellectuals such as Qu Qiubai, prior to this, the government used both terms interchangeably. In Taiwan, Guoyu continues to be the term for Standard Chinese. The term Putonghua, on the contrary, implies nothing more than the notion of a lingua franca, Huayu, or language of the Chinese nation, originally simply meant Chinese language, and was used in overseas communities to contrast Chinese with foreign languages. Over time, the desire to standardise the variety of Chinese spoken in these communities led to the adoption of the name Huayu to refer to Mandarin and it also incorporates the notion that Mandarin is usually not the national or common language of the areas in which overseas Chinese live. The term Mandarin is a translation of Guānhuà, which referred to the lingua franca of the late Chinese empire, in English, Mandarin may refer to the standard language, the dialect group as a whole, or to historic forms such as the late Imperial lingua franca. The name Modern Standard Mandarin is sometimes used by linguists who wish to distinguish the current state of the language from other northern. Chinese has long had considerable variation, hence prestige dialects have always existed. Confucius, for example, used yǎyán rather than colloquial regional dialects, rime books, which were written since the Northern and Southern dynasties, may also have reflected one or more systems of standard pronunciation during those times

10.
Pinyin
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Pinyin, or Hànyǔ Pīnyīn, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese in mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. It is often used to teach Standard Chinese, which is written using Chinese characters. The system includes four diacritics denoting tones, Pinyin without tone marks is used to spell Chinese names and words in languages written with the Latin alphabet, and also in certain computer input methods to enter Chinese characters. The pinyin system was developed in the 1950s by many linguists, including Zhou Youguang and it was published by the Chinese government in 1958 and revised several times. The International Organization for Standardization adopted pinyin as a standard in 1982. The system was adopted as the standard in Taiwan in 2009. The word Hànyǔ means the language of the Han people. In 1605, the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci published Xizi Qiji in Beijing and this was the first book to use the Roman alphabet to write the Chinese language. Twenty years later, another Jesuit in China, Nicolas Trigault, neither book had much immediate impact on the way in which Chinese thought about their writing system, and the romanizations they described were intended more for Westerners than for the Chinese. One of the earliest Chinese thinkers to relate Western alphabets to Chinese was late Ming to early Qing Dynasty scholar-official, the first late Qing reformer to propose that China adopt a system of spelling was Song Shu. A student of the great scholars Yu Yue and Zhang Taiyan, Song had been to Japan and observed the effect of the kana syllabaries. This galvanized him into activity on a number of fronts, one of the most important being reform of the script, while Song did not himself actually create a system for spelling Sinitic languages, his discussion proved fertile and led to a proliferation of schemes for phonetic scripts. The Wade–Giles system was produced by Thomas Wade in 1859, and it was popular and used in English-language publications outside China until 1979. This Sin Wenz or New Writing was much more sophisticated than earlier alphabets. In 1940, several members attended a Border Region Sin Wenz Society convention. Mao Zedong and Zhu De, head of the army, both contributed their calligraphy for the masthead of the Sin Wenz Societys new journal. Outside the CCP, other prominent supporters included Sun Yat-sens son, Sun Fo, Cai Yuanpei, the countrys most prestigious educator, Tao Xingzhi, an educational reformer. Over thirty journals soon appeared written in Sin Wenz, plus large numbers of translations, biographies, some contemporary Chinese literature, and a spectrum of textbooks

11.
Cantonese
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Cantonese, or Standard Cantonese, is a variety of Chinese spoken in the city of Guangzhou in southeastern China. It is the prestige variety of Yue, one of the major subdivisions of Chinese. In mainland China, it is the lingua franca of the province of Guangdong and some neighbouring areas such as Guangxi. In Hong Kong and Macau, Cantonese serves as one of their official languages and it is also spoken amongst overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia and throughout the Western World. When Cantonese and the closely related Yuehai dialects are classified together, Cantonese is viewed as vital part of the cultural identity for its native speakers across large swathes of southeastern China, Hong Kong and Macau. Although Cantonese shares some vocabulary with Mandarin, the two varieties are mutually unintelligible because of differences in pronunciation, grammar and lexicon, sentence structure, in particular the placement of verbs, sometimes differs between the two varieties. This results in the situation in which a Cantonese and a Mandarin text may look similar, in English, the term Cantonese is ambiguous. Cantonese proper is the variety native to the city of Canton and this narrow sense may be specified as Canton language or Guangzhou language in English. However, Cantonese may also refer to the branch of Cantonese that contains Cantonese proper as well as Taishanese and Gaoyang. In this article, Cantonese is used for Cantonese proper, historically, speakers called this variety Canton speech or Guangzhou speech, although this term is now seldom used outside mainland China. In Guangdong province, people call it provincial capital speech or plain speech. In Hong Kong and Macau, as well as among overseas Chinese communities, in mainland China, the term Guangdong speech is also increasingly being used among both native and non-native speakers. Due to its status as a prestige dialect among all the dialects of the Cantonese or Yue branch of Chinese varieties, the official languages of Hong Kong are Chinese and English, as defined in the Hong Kong Basic Law. The Chinese language has different varieties, of which Cantonese is one. Given the traditional predominance of Cantonese within Hong Kong, it is the de facto official spoken form of the Chinese language used in the Hong Kong Government and all courts and it is also used as the medium of instruction in schools, alongside English. A similar situation exists in neighboring Macau, where Chinese is an official language along with Portuguese. As in Hong Kong, Cantonese is the predominant spoken variety of Chinese used in life and is thus the official form of Chinese used in the government. The variant spoken in Hong Kong and Macau is known as Hong Kong Cantonese, Cantonese first developed around the port city of Guangzhou in the Pearl River Delta region of southeastern China

12.
Jyutping
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Jyutping is a romanisation system for Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong, an academic group, in 1993. Its formal name is The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Cantonese Romanisation Scheme, the LSHK promotes the use of this romanisation system. The name Jyutping is a contraction consisting of the first Chinese characters of the terms Jyut6jyu5, only the finals m and ng can be used as standalone nasal syllables. ^ ^ ^ Referring to the pronunciation of these words. There are nine tones in six distinct tone contours in Cantonese, however, as three of the nine are entering tones, which only appear in syllables ending with p, t, and k, they do not have separate tone numbers in Jyutping. Jyutping and the Yale Romanisation of Cantonese represent Cantonese pronunciations with the letters in, The initials, b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, ng, h, s, gw, kw. The vowel, aa, a, e, i, o, u, the coda, i, u, m, n, ng, p, t, k. But they differ in the following, The vowels eo and oe represent /ɵ/ and /œː/ respectively in Jyutping, the initial j represents /j/ in Jyutping whereas y is used instead in Yale. The initial z represents /ts/ in Jyutping whereas j is used instead in Yale, the initial c represents /tsʰ/ in Jyutping whereas ch is used instead in Yale. In Jyutping, if no consonant precedes the vowel yu, then the initial j is appended before the vowel, in Yale, the corresponding initial y is never appended before yu under any circumstances. Jyutping defines three finals not in Yale, eu /ɛːu/, em /ɛːm/, and ep /ɛːp/ and these three finals are used in colloquial Cantonese words, such as deu6, lem2, and gep6. To represent tones, only tone numbers are used in Jyutping whereas Yale traditionally uses tone marks together with the letter h. Jyutping and Cantonese Pinyin represent Cantonese pronunciations with the letters in, The initials, b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, ng, h, s, gw, kw. The vowel, aa, a, e, i, o, u, the coda, i, u, m, n, ng, p, t, k. But they have differences, The vowel oe represents both /ɵ/ and /œː/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas eo and oe represent /ɵ/ and /œː/ respectively in Jyutping. The vowel y represents /y/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas both yu and i are used in Jyutping, the initial dz represents /ts/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas z is used instead in Jyutping. The initial ts represents /tsʰ/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas c is used instead in Jyutping. To represent tones, the numbers 1 to 9 are usually used in Cantonese Pinyin, however, only the numbers 1 to 6 are used in Jyutping

13.
Southern Min
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Southern Min, or Minnan, is a branch of Min Chinese spoken in certain parts of China including southern Fujian, eastern Guangdong, Hainan, and southern Zhejiang, and in Taiwan. The Min Nan dialects are spoken by descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora, most notably the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia. In common parlance, Southern Min usually refers to Hokkien, including Amoy and Taiwanese Hokkien, the Southern Min dialect group also includes Teochew, though Teochew has limited mutual intelligibility with Hokkien. Hainanese is not mutually intellgible with other Southern Min and is considered a separate branch of Min. Southern Min is not mutually intelligible with Eastern Min, Pu-Xian Min, any other Min branch, Hakka, Cantonese, Shanghainese or Mandarin. Southern Min dialects are spoken in the part of Fujian. The variant spoken in Leizhou, Guangdong as well as Hainan is Hainanese and is not mutually intelligible with other Southern Min or Teochew, Hainanese is classified in some schemes as part of Southern Min and in other schemes as separate. Puxian Min was originally based on the Quanzhou dialect, but over time became heavily influenced by Eastern Min, eventually losing intellegility with Minnan. A forms of Southern Min spoken in Taiwan, collectively known as Taiwanese, Southern Min is a first language for most of the Hoklo people, the main ethnicity of Taiwan. The correspondence between language and ethnicity is not absolute, as some Hoklo have very limited proficiency in Southern Min while some non-Hoklo speak Southern Min fluently, there are many Southern Min speakers also among Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia. Many ethnic Chinese immigrants to the region were Hoklo from southern Fujian and brought the language to what is now Burma, Indonesia and present-day Malaysia and Singapore. In general, Southern Min from southern Fujian is known as Hokkien, Hokkienese, many Southeast Asian ethnic Chinese also originated in the Chaoshan region of Guangdong and speak Teochew language, the variant of Southern Min from that region. Southern Min-speakers form the majority of Chinese in Singapore, with the largest group being Hokkien, despite the similarities the two groups are rarely seen as part of the same Minnan Chinese subgroups. The variants of Southern Min spoken in Zhejiang province are most akin to that spoken in Quanzhou, the variants spoken in Taiwan are similar to the three Fujian variants and are collectively known as Taiwanese. Those Southern Min variants that are known as Hokkien in Southeast Asia also originate from these variants. The variants of Southern Min in the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong province are known as Teochew or Chaozhou. Teochew is of importance in the Southeast Asian Chinese diaspora, particularly in Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Sumatra. The Philippines variant is mostly from the Quanzhou area as most of their forefathers are from the aforementioned area, the Southern Min language variant spoken around Shanwei and Haifeng differs markedly from Teochew and may represent a later migration from Zhangzhou

14.
Taiwanese Romanization System
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The Taiwanese Romanization System is a transcription system for Taiwanese Hokkien. It is derived from Pe̍h-ōe-jī and since 2006 has been promoted by Taiwans Ministry of Education. It is nearly identical to Taiwanese Language Phonetic Alphabet Romanization for Hakka apart from using ts tsh j instead of c ch j for the fricatives /ts tsʰ dz/, Taiwanese Romanization System uses 16 basic Latin letters,7 digraphs and a trigraph. In addition, it uses 6 diacritics to represent tones, nn is only used after a vowel to express nasalization, so it has no capital letter. Palatalization occurs when J, S, Ts, Tsh followed by i, so Ji, Si, Tsi, of the 10 unused basic Latin letters, R is sometimes used to express dialectal vowels, while the others are only used in loanwords. O pronounced ㄜ in general dialect in Kaohsiung and Tainan, ㄛ in Taipei, -nn forms the nasal vowels There is also syllabic m and ng. ing pronounced, ik pronounced. A hyphen links elements of a compound word, a double hyphen indicates that the following syllable has a neutral tone and therefore that the preceding syllable does not undergo tone sandhi. 臺灣閩南語羅馬拼音及其發音學習網, Taiwanese Romanization System learning site by Ministry of Education, Taiwan

15.
Old Chinese
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Old Chinese, also called Archaic Chinese in older works, is the oldest attested stage of Chinese, and the ancestor of all modern varieties of Chinese. The earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones from around 1250 BC, bronze inscriptions became plentiful during the following Zhou dynasty. The latter part of the Zhou period saw a flowering of literature, including works such as the Analects, the Mencius. These works served as models for Literary Chinese, which remained the standard until the early twentieth century, thus preserving the vocabulary. Old Chinese was written with a form of Chinese characters. Although the script is not alphabetic, most characters were created by adapting a character for a similar-sounding word. Most recent reconstructions also describe Old Chinese as a language without tones, but having consonant clusters at the end of the syllable, most researchers trace the core vocabulary of Old Chinese to Sino-Tibetan, with much early borrowing from neighbouring languages. During the Zhou period, the originally monosyllabic vocabulary was augmented with polysyllabic words formed by compounding, several derivational affixes have also been identified. However the language lacked inflection, and indicated grammatical relationships using word order, the earliest known written records of the Chinese language were found at the Yinxu site near modern Anyang identified as the last capital of the Shang dynasty, and date from about 1250 BC. These are the bones, short inscriptions carved on tortoise plastrons and ox scapulae for divinatory purposes. The language written is undoubtedly an early form of Chinese, but is difficult to due to the limited subject matter. Only half of the 4,000 characters used have been identified with certainty, little is known about the grammar of this language, but it seems much less reliant on grammatical particles than Classical Chinese. From early in the Western Zhou period, around 1000 BC, even longer pre-Classical texts on a wide range of subjects have also been transmitted through the literary tradition. The oldest parts of the Book of Documents, the Classic of Poetry and the I Ching also date from the early Zhou period, a greater proportion of this more varied vocabulary has been identified than for the oracular period. The four centuries preceding the unification of China in 221 BC constitute the Chinese classical period in the strict sense, there are many bronze inscriptions from this period, but they are vastly outweighed by a rich literature written in ink on bamboo and wooden slips and silk. Although these are perishable materials, and many books were destroyed in the burning of books and burying of scholars in the Qin dynasty, other texts have been transmitted as copies. Such works from this period as the Analects, the Classic of Filial Piety, the Mencius, the Classical Chinese of such works formed the basis of Literary Chinese, which remained the written standard until the early twentieth century. Each character of the script represented a single Old Chinese word, most scholars believe that these words were monosyllabic, though some have recently suggested that a minority of them had minor presyllables

16.
Reconstructions of Old Chinese
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Several authors have produced reconstructions of Old Chinese phonology, beginning with the Swedish sinologist Bernard Karlgren in the 1940s and continuing to the present day. Although the various notations appear to be different, they correspond with each other on most points. By the 1970s, it was agreed that Old Chinese had fewer points of articulation than Middle Chinese, a set of voiceless sonorants. Since the 1990s, most authors have agreed on a six-vowel system, several other kinds of evidence are less comprehensive, but provide valuable clues. These include Min dialects, early Chinese transcriptions of foreign names, Middle Chinese, or more precisely Early Middle Chinese, is the phonological system of the Qieyun, a rhyme dictionary published in 601, with many revisions and expansions over the following centuries. These dictionaries indicated pronunciation by dividing a syllable into an initial consonant, according to its preface, the Qieyun did not reflect a single contemporary dialect, but incorporated distinctions made in different parts of China at the time. The fact that the Qieyun system contains more distinctions than any single form of speech means that it retains additional information about the history of the language. The large number of initials and finals are unevenly distributed, suggesting hypotheses about earlier forms of Chinese, often characters sharing a phonetic element are still pronounced alike, as in the character 中, which was adapted to write the words chōng and zhōng. In other cases the words in a series have very different sounds both in Middle Chinese and in modern varieties. Since the sounds are assumed to have been similar at the time the characters were chosen, the first systematic study of the structure of Chinese characters was Xu Shens Shuowen Jiezi. The Shuowen was mostly based on the seal script standardized in the Qin dynasty. Earlier characters from bones and Zhou bronze inscriptions often reveal relationships that were obscured in later forms. Rhyme has been a consistent feature of Chinese poetry, while much old poetry still rhymes in modern varieties of Chinese, Chinese scholars have long noted exceptions. This was attributed to lax rhyming practice of early poets until the late-Ming dynasty scholar Chen Di argued that a former consistency had been obscured by sound change and this implied that the rhyming practice of ancient poets recorded information about their pronunciation. Scholars have studied various bodies of poetry to identify classes of rhyming words at different periods, the oldest such collection is the Shijing, containing songs ranging from the 10th to 7th centuries BC. The systematic study of Old Chinese rhymes began in the 17th century, gus analysis was refined by Qing dynasty philologists, steadily increasing the number of rhyme groups. A final revision by Wang Li in the 1930s produced the set of 31 rhyme groups. The Min dialects are believed to have split off before the Middle Chinese stage, for example, the following dental initials have been identified in reconstructed proto-Min, Other points of articulation show similar distinctions within stops and nasals

17.
Mongolian Cyrillic alphabet
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The Mongolian Cyrillic alphabet is the writing system used for the standard dialect of the Mongolian language in the modern state of Mongolia. It has a phonemic orthography, meaning that there is a fair degree of consistency in the representation of individual sounds. Cyrillic has not been adopted as the system in the Inner Mongolia region of China. Mongolian Cyrillic is the most recent of the writing systems that have been used for Mongolian. It is a Cyrillic alphabet and is similar to, for example, the Bulgarian alphabet. It was introduced in the 1940s in the Mongolian Peoples Republic under Soviet influence, after the Mongolian democratic revolution in 1990, the traditional Mongolian script was briefly considered to replace Cyrillic, but this has not come to fruition. Nevertheless, the Mongolian script has become a subject in primary and secondary schooling and is slowly gaining in popularity. Thus, the Cyrillic script continues to be used in everyday life, the Cyrillic alphabet used for Mongolian is as follows, Үү and Өө are sometimes also written as Її and Єє respectively, when using Russian software or keyboards that do not support them. Initial long vowels and non-initial full vowels are written with double letters, while initial short vowels. Conversely, every vowel letter except у and ү can also represent schwa, palatalization is indicated by и, the soft sign ь or е, ё, я and ю after the palatalized consonant. These latter letters are pronounced without in that position, Щ is never used in Mongolian and only used in Russian words containing the letter. Its actual pronunciation in loans by monolingual Mongolians is unknown, the difference between might be dialectal, while the difference between ө~o is positional. /ɡ/ and /ɢ/ are both indicated by the letter г ⟨g⟩, but the value of that letter is mostly predictable. In words with front vowels, it always means /ɡ/, because only /ɡ/ occurs in such words. In words with vowels, it always means /ɢ/, except syllable-finally. Similarly, a vowel is added to final н ⟨n⟩ to make it denote /n/. ф and к are loan consonants and will often be adapted into the Mongolian sound system as and

18.
Mongolian script
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Derived from Sogdian, Mongolian is a true alphabet, with separate letters for consonants and vowels. The Mongolian script has adapted to write languages such as Oirat. Alphabets based on this classical vertical script are used in Inner Mongolia and other parts of China to this day to write Mongolian, Xibe and, experimentally, the Mongolian vertical script developed as an adaptation of the Sogdian to the Mongolian language. From the seventh and eighth to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, in the western dialect, materials of the Arab-Mongolian and Persian-Mongolian dictionaries, Mongolian texts in Arabic transcription, etc. The development over this period explains why Mongolian script looks like a vertical Arabic script, zain was dropped as it was redundant for. Various schools of orthography, some using diacritics, were developed to avoid ambiguity, the Uyghur script and its descendants—Mongolian, Oirat Clear, Manchu, and Buryat—are the only vertical scripts written from left to right. Mongols learned their script as a syllabary, dividing the syllables into twelve different classes, based on the final phonemes of the syllables, all of which ended in vowels. The Manchus followed the same syllabic method when learning Manchu script, Manchus when learning, instead of saying l, a---la, l, o---lo, etc. were taught at once to say la, lo, etc. Many more syllables than are contained in their syllabary might have formed with their letters. Manchu children were taught the language via the syllabic method, some westerners learn the script in an alphabetic manner instead. Today, the opinion on whether it is alphabet or syllabic in nature is still split between different experts, in China, it is considered syllabic and Manchu is still taught in this manner. The alphabetic approach is used mainly by foreigners who want to learn the language, studying Manchu script as a syllabary takes a longer time. The Traditional Mongolian script is known by a variety of names. Due to its shape like Uighur script, it known as the Uighurjin Mongol script. The name Old Mongol script stuck, and it is known as such among the older generation. It does not distinguish several vowels and consonants that were not required for Uyghur, the result is somewhat comparable to the situation of English, which must represent ten or more vowels with only five letters and uses the digraph th for two distinct sounds. Ambiguity is sometimes prevented by context, as the requirements of vowel harmony, moreover, as there are few words with an exactly identical spelling, actual ambiguities are rare for a reader who knows the orthography. Letters have different forms depending on their position in a word, initial, medial, in some cases, additional graphic variants are selected for visual harmony with the subsequent character

19.
History of Mongolia
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The area of present-day Mongolia has been ruled by various nomadic empires, including the Xiongnu state, the Xianbei state, the Rouran Khaganate, the Turkic Khaganate and others. In 1206, Genghis Khan was able to unite and conquer the Mongols, forging them into a force which went on to create the largest contiguous empire in world history. After the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty in 1368, the Mongols returned to their patterns of internal strife. At the end of the 17th century, what is now Mongolia had been incorporated into the area ruled by the Manchu-led Qing dynasty. During the collapse of the Qing in 1911, Mongolia declared independence but had to struggle until 1921 to firmly establish de facto independence and until 1945 to gain international recognition. As a consequence, it came under strong Soviet influence, In 1924, the Mongolian Peoples Republic was declared, after the Revolutions of 1989, the Mongolian Revolution of 1990 led to a multi-party system, a new constitution in 1992, and a transition to a market economy. The climate of Central Asia became dry after the large tectonic collision between the Indian Plate and the Eurasian Plate and this impact threw up the massive chain of mountains known as the Himalayas. The Himalayas, Greater Khingan and Lesser Khingan mountains act like a wall, blocking the warm. Many of the mountains of Mongolia were formed during the Late Neogene, the Mongolian climate was more humid hundreds of thousands of years ago. Mongolia is known to be the source of priceless paleontological discoveries, the first scientifically confirmed dinosaur eggs were found in Mongolia during the 1923 expedition of the American Museum of Natural History, led by Roy Chapman Andrews. During the middle to late Eocene Epoch, Mongolia was the home of many Paleogene mammals with Sarkastodon, Homo erectus possibly inhabited Mongolia as much as 800,000 years ago but fossils of Homo erectus have not yet been found in Mongolia. Stone tools have been found in the southern, Gobi, region, important prehistoric sites are the Paleolithic cave drawings of the Khoid Tsenkheriin Agui in Khovd province, and the Tsagaan Agui in Bayankhongor Province. A neolithic farming settlement has been found in Dornod Province, contemporary findings from western Mongolia include only temporary encampments of hunters and fishers. The population during the Copper Age has been described as paleomongolid in the east of what is now Mongolia and this culture is the main archaeological find of the Bronze Age Mongolia. Deer stones and the omnipresent kheregsüürs probably are from this era, deer stones are ancient megaliths carved with symbols that can be found all over central and eastern Eurasia but are concentrated largely in Siberia and Mongolia. Most deer stones occur in association with ancient graves, it is believed that stones are the guardians of the dead, there are around 700 deer stones known in Mongolia of a total of 900 deer stones that have been found in Central Asia and South Siberia. Their true purpose and creators are still unknown, some researchers claim that deer stones are rooted in shamanism and are thought to have been set up during the Bronze Age around 1000 BC, and may mark the graves of important people. Later inhabitants of the area likely reused them to mark their own burial mounds, in Mongolia, the Lake Baikal area, and the Sayan and Altai Mountains, there are 550,20,20, and 60 known deer stones respectively

20.
Mongolian nobility
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The Mongolian nobility arose between the 10th and 12th centuries, became prominent in the 13th century, and essentially governed Mongolia until the early 20th century. The Mongolian word for nobility, Yazgurtan, derives from the Mongol word yazgur, Khaan, the supreme ruler of the Mongol Empire. Noyon, meaning King of a State, a ruler of a state under the Mongol Empire. Jinong, meaning Crown Prince, the heir apparent of the Great Khaan, during the Yuan dynasty, the Jinong resided in Karakorum and administered ceremonial events. Mirza, a Persian term meaning Prince, Tumetu-iin Noyan, meaning Commander of a Tümen. A tümen was a unit of 10,000 troops. There were initially only nine tümens in the Mongol Empire in 1206, mingghan-u Noyan, meaning Commander of a Mingghan. A mingghan was a unit of 1,000 troops. Jagutu-iin Darga, meaning Commander of a Zuut, a zuut was a military unit of 100 troops. Arban-u Darga, meaning Commander of an Aravt, an aravt was a military unit of 10 troops. Cherbi, a title for a Kheshig commander, bey, a Turkish term meaning Chieftain. Begum, a Turkish term used to refer to the wife or daughter of a bey, gonji, referred to a princess or noble lady. Behi, referred to a noble lady, Khaan, the supreme ruler of the Northern Yuan Empire. Khan, a title for a Mongol feudal lord, by the mid-16th century, there were a number of khans in Mongolia as local feudal lords started calling themselves khan. Note that this khan is different from khaan, khaan was reserved for the supreme ruler only, Jinong, the crown prince or heir apparent of the Khaan. He resided in the Inner Mongolia region, from the 15th century, the title became a hereditary one and was no longer reserved exclusively for the heir apparent of the Khaan. Khong Tayiji, originated from the Chinese term huangtaizi and it was used to refer to a descendant of Genghis Khan who had his own fief. Taiji, a title for a descendant of Genghis Khan, Wang, a title for a descendant of Qasar or any of Genghis Khans brothers who had his own fief

21.
Culture of Mongolia
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The Culture of Mongolia has been heavily influenced by the Mongol nomadic way of life. Other important influences are from Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism, and from China, since the 20th century, Russian and, via Russia, European cultures have had a strong effect on Mongolia. Among the topics that are mentioned from the oldest works of Mongolian literature to modern pop songs are love for parents and homesickness. Horses have always played an important role in life as well as in the arts. Mongols have a lot of heroes from the ancient time. Hospitality is so important in the steppes that it is taken for granted. The Mongolian word for hero, baatar, appears frequently in personal names and it can be seen from Mongolian perspective as “the look in the eye of a horse that is racing where it wants to go, no matter what the rider wants. The ger is part of the Mongolian national identity, ger also means home, and other words are derived from its word stem. For example, gerlekh means to marry, since ancient times Tengrism was the dominant belief system of the Mongols and still retains significant importance in their mythology. During the era of the Great Khans, Mongolia practiced freedom of worship and is still an element of the Mongol character. In the 17th century, Tibetan Buddhism became the dominant religion in Mongolia, traditional Shamanism was, except in some remote regions, suppressed and marginalized. On the other hand, a number of practices, like ovoo worshiping, were incorporated into Buddhist liturgy. Tibetan Buddhism is a religion with a large number of deities. This inspired the creation of objects including images in painting. After the Stalinist purges in the 1930s, both Buddhism and Shamanism were virtually outlawed in the Mongolian Peoples Republic, in Inner Mongolia, traditional religion was heavily affected by the Cultural Revolution. Since the 1990s, a number of Christian sects are trying to gain a foothold in Mongolia, about 4% of the Mongolian population is Muslim. Mongolians traditionally were afraid of misfortunes and believe in good and bad omens, misfortune might be attracted by talking about negative things or by persons that are often talked about. They might also be sent by some malicious shaman enraged by breaking some taboo, like stepping on a threshold, desecrating waters or mountains

22.
Politics of Mongolia
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Politics of Mongolia takes place in a framework of a semi-presidential representative democratic republic, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the President and the Government, legislative power is vested in both the government and parliament. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature, after some instability during the first two decades of communist rule in Mongolia, there was no significant popular unrest until December 1989. Collectivization of livestock, introduction of agriculture, and the extension of fixed abodes were all carried out without perceptible popular opposition, the birth of perestroika in the former Soviet Union and the democracy movement in Eastern Europe were seen in Mongolia. On the morning of 10 December 1989, the first open pro-democracy demonstration met in front of the Youth Cultural Center in Ulaanbaatar, there, Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj announced the creation of the Mongolian Democratic Union. Over the next months activists 13 democratic leaders continued to organize demonstrations, rallies, protests and hunger strikes, activists had growing support from Mongolians, both in the capital and the countryside and the unions activities led to other calls for democracy all over the country. Jambyn Batmönkh, chairman of Politburo of MPRPs Central Committee decided to dissolve the Politburo, thus paved the way for the first multi-party elections in Mongolia. As a result, Mongolia became the first successful country in Asia to transition into democracy from communist rule, Elbegdorj worked as the Leader of the Mongolian Democratic Union in 1989–1997. Mongolias first multi-party elections for a Peoples Great Hural were held on 29 July 1990, the MPRP won 85% of the seats. The Peoples Great Hural first met on 3 September and elected a president, vice-president, prime minister, the vice president was also a chairman of the Baga Hural. In November 1991, the Peoples Great Hural began discussion on a new constitution, the Constitution entered into force on 12 February 1992. The 1992 constitution provided that the president would be elected by popular vote rather than by the legislature as before. In June 1993, incumbent Punsalmaagiin Ochirbat won the first direct presidential election, as the supreme legislative organ, the SGKh is empowered to enact and amend laws, regarding domestic and foreign policy, to ratify international agreements, and declare a state of emergency. There are 76 members of the parliament and they were popularly elected by district in 1992-2012. By 2012 legislative election law, since 2012 parliamentary election, a voting system began to be used in legislature in Mongolia. 48 of the members are popularly elected by district and 28 of them are elected from nationwide lists using proportional representation. SGKh members elect a speaker and vice speakers from each party or coalition in the government, until June 1996 the predominant party in Mongolia was the ex-communist party Mongolian Peoples Revolutionary Party. The countrys president was Punsalmaagiin Ochirbat in 1990-1997, Ochirbat was a member of MPRP until 1990 but changed his party membership to Democratic Party following the democratic revolution

23.
Geography of Mongolia
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Mongolia is a landlocked country in Central Asia and East Asia, located between China and Russia. The terrain is one of mountains and rolling plateaus, with a degree of relief. The total land area of Mongolia is 1,564,116 square kilometres, overall, the land slopes from the high Altay Mountains of the west and the north to plains and depressions in the east and the south. The Khüiten Peak in extreme western Mongolia on the Chinese border is the highest point, the lowest is 518 metres, an otherwise undistinguished spot in the eastern Mongolian plain. The country has an elevation of 1,580 metres. The landscape includes one of Asias largest freshwater lakes, many lakes, marshes, sand dunes, rolling grasslands, alpine forests. Northern and western Mongolia are seismically active zones, with frequent earthquakes and many hot springs, Mongolia has two major mountain ranges. The highest is the Altai Mountains, which stretch across the western, the highest peak in the country, Khüiten Peak at 4734 metres, is in the Altai range. The Khangai Mountains, mountains also trending northwest to southeast, occupy much of central and north-central Mongolia and these are older, lower, and more eroded mountains, with many forests and alpine pastures. Much of eastern Mongolia is occupied by a plain, and the lowest area is a southwest-to-northeast trending depression that reaches from the Gobi Desert region in the south to the eastern frontier. Some of Mongolias waterways drain to the oceans, but many finish at Endorheic basins in the deserts, rivers are most extensively developed in the north, and the countrys major river system is that of the Selenge, which drains via Lake Baikal to the Arctic Ocean. Some minor tributaries of Siberias Yenisei River, which flows to the Arctic Ocean. In northeastern Mongolia the Onon River drains into the Pacific Ocean through the Shilka River in Russia and the Amur rivers, forming the tenth longest river system in the world. Many rivers of western Mongolia end at lakes in the Central Asian Internal Drainage Basin, most often in the Great Lakes Depression, or at Hulun Lake, the few streams of southern Mongolia do not reach the sea but run into lakes or deserts. Mongolias largest lake by area, Uvs Lake is in the Great Lakes Depression, Mongolias largest lake by volume of water, Khövsgöl Nuur, drains via the Selenge river to the Arctic Ocean. One of the most easterly lakes of Mongolia, Hoh Nuur, in total, the lakes and rivers of Mongolia cover 10,560 square kilometres, or 0. 67% of the country. Mongolia is high, cold, and dry and it has an extreme continental climate with long, cold winters and short summers, during which most precipitation falls. The country averages 257 cloudless days a year, and it is usually at the center of a region of high atmospheric pressure

24.
Mongolic languages
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The Mongolic languages are a group of languages spoken in East-Central Asia, mostly in Mongolia and surrounding areas plus in Kalmykia. The closest relative of the Mongolic languages appears to be the extinct language Khitan, some linguists have grouped Mongolic with Turkic, Tungusic, and possibly Koreanic and Japonic as part of the controversial Altaic family, but this has been widely discredited. In another classificational approach, there is a tendency to call Central Mongolian a language consisting of Mongolian proper, Oirat and Buryat, within Mongolian proper, they then draw a distinction between Khalkha on the one hand and Southern Mongolian on the other hand. A less common subdivision of Central Mongolian is to divide it into a Central dialect, an Eastern dialect, a Western dialect, and a Northern dialect. Another problem lies in the comparability of terminology as Western linguists use language and dialect, while Mongolian linguists use the Grimmian trichotomy language, dialect. Proto-Mongolic, the language of the modern Mongolic languages, is very close to Middle Mongol, the language spoken at the time of Genghis Khan. Most features of modern Mongolic languages can thus be reconstructed from Middle Mongol, an exception would be the voice suffix like -caga- do together, which can be reconstructed from the modern languages but is not attested in Middle Mongol. One can speculate that the languages of Donghu, Wuhuan, the closest relative of the languages traced back to Proto-Mongolic appears to be the medieval Khitan language. Khitan has been described as Para-Mongolic, not part of the Mongolic family, once again on the Tabgač language. Ethnic map of Mongolia Monumenta Altaica grammars, texts, dictionaries and bibliographies of Mongolian and other Altaic languages

25.
Buddhism in Mongolia
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Buddhism in Mongolia derives much of its recent characteristics from Tibetan Buddhism of the Gelug and Kagyu lineages. Although the emperors of the Yuan dynasty in the 14th and 15th century had already converted to Tibetan Buddhism, the Mongols returned to their old shamanist ways after the collapse of their empire. In 1578 Altan Khan, a Mongol military leader with ambitions to unite the Mongols and to emulate the career of Genghis Khan and they formed an alliance that gave Altan Khan legitimacy and religious sanction for his imperial pretensions and that provided the Buddhist school with protection and patronage. Altan Khan of Mongolia gave the Tibetan leader the title of Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism combines Vajrayana with indigenous rituals of curing and exorcism, shares the common Buddhist goal of individual release from suffering and the cycles of rebirth. Tantrism contributed esoteric techniques of meditation and a repertoire of sacred icons, phrases and mudra that easily lent themselves to pragmatic and magical interpretation. In Tibet Buddhism thus became an amalgam, combining colorful popular ceremonies and these leaders, referred to as tulkus, held secular power and supervised a body of ordinary monks or lamas. The monks were supported by the laity, who thereby gained merit and who received from the instructions in the rudiments of the faith and monastic services in healing, divination. Though Tibetan influence is prevalent in Mongolia, Mongolian Buddhism is distinct, the earliest introduction of Buddhism into the Mongolian steppes took place during the periods of pre-Mongol states. Buddhism penetrated Mongolia from Nepal via Central Asia, many Buddhist terms of Sanskrit origin were adopted via the Sogdian language. The rulers of the pre- and para-Mongol states such as the Xiongnu, Xianbei, Rouran Khaganate, Buddhism prevailed among aristocrats and was patronised by the monarchs of the Northern Wei established by the Xianbei and of the Liao dynasty established by the Khitan people. The Khitan aristocracy regarded Buddhism as the culture of the Uyghur Khaganate that dominated the Mongolian steppes before the rise of the Khitans, the monarchs of the Jin established by the Jurchen people also regarded Buddhism as part of their Khitan. Tibetan Buddhist monasticism made an important impact on the development of Mongolian Buddhism. The Buddhist monkhood has always played significant political roles in Central and Southeast Asia, Mongols assisted Tibetans in unifying the country. The activities of the Mongols were conducive to the prominency of the Sakya school and then the Gelug, by the beginning of the twentieth century, Outer Mongolia had 583 monasteries and temple complexes, which controlled an estimated 20 percent of the countrys wealth. Almost all Mongolian cities have grown up on the sites of monasteries, Ikh Huree, as Ulaanbaatar was then known, was the seat of the preeminent living Buddha of Mongolia, who ranked third in the ecclesiastical hierarchy after the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama. Two monasteries there contained approximately 13,000 and 7000 monks, respectively, over the centuries, the monasteries acquired riches and secular dependents, gradually increasing their wealth and power as the wealth and power of the Mongol nobility declined. Some nobles donated a portion of their dependent families — people, rather than land, were the foundation of wealth, some herders dedicated themselves and their families to serve the monasteries, either from piety or from the desire to escape the arbitrary exactions of the nobility. In some areas, the monasteries and their living buddhas were also the secular authorities, about 250,000 people, more than a third of the total population, either lived in territories administered by monasteries and living Buddhas or were hereditary dependents of the monasteries

26.
Prehistoric Mongolia
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The climate of Central Asia became dry after the large tectonic collision between the Indian Plate and the Eurasian Plate. This impact threw up the chain of mountains known as the Himalayas. The Himalayas, Greater Khingan and Lesser Khingan mountains act like a wall, blocking the warm. Many of the mountains of Mongolia were formed during the Late Neogene, the Mongolian climate was more humid hundreds of thousands of years ago. Mongolia is known to be the source of priceless paleontological discoveries, the first scientifically confirmed dinosaur eggs were found in Mongolia during the 1923 expedition of the American Museum of Natural History, led by Roy Chapman Andrews. During the middle to late Eocene Epoch, Mongolia was the home of many Paleogene mammals with Sarkastodon, homo erectus possibly inhabited Mongolia as much as 800,000 years ago but fossils of H. erectus have not yet been found in Mongolia. Stone tools have been found in the southern, Gobi, region, deer stones are ancient megaliths carved with symbols that can be found all over central and eastern Eurasia but are concentrated largely in Siberia and Mongolia. Most deer stones occur in association with ancient graves, it is believed that stones are the guardians of the dead, there are around 700 deer stones known in Mongolia of a total of 900 deer stones that have been found in Central Asia and South Siberia. Their true purpose and creators are still unknown, some researchers claim that deer stones are rooted in shamanism and are thought to have been set up during the Bronze Age around 1000 BC, and may mark the graves of important people. Later inhabitants of the area likely reused them to mark their own burial mounds, in Mongolia, the Lake Baikal area, and the Sayan Altai and Altai Mountain regions, there are 550,20,20, and 60 known deer stones respectively. There are different viewpoints about the origins of stone art. According to H. L. Chlyenova, the deer image originated from the Saka tribe. D. G. Savinov and M. H. Mannai-Ool have also studied deer stone art and have reached other conclusions

27.
Slab Grave culture
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Slab Grave culture is a archaeological culture of the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Mongols. According to various sources, it is dated from 1,300 to 300 BC, the Slab Grave Culture became an eastern wing of a huge nomadic Eurasian world which at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC produced a civilization known as Scythian-Siberian. The anthropological type of the population is predominantly Mongoloid, the newcomers from the area of Tuva. The name of the culture is derived from the main typology of the graves, its graves have rectangular fences of vertically set slabs of gneiss or granite, were found settlements, burial and ritual structures, rock paintings, deer stones, and other remains of that culture. The most recent graves date from the 6th century BC, the gap is not less than three centuries, and the monuments that would fill this chronological gap are almost unknown. The slab graves are both individual and collective in groups of 5-8 to large burials with up to 350 fences, large cemeteries have a clear plan. In Aga Buryat District were found more than three thousand fences, most of the graves are burials, some are ritual fences - cenotaphs. Graves are oriented along west-east axis, deceased are laid on the back, with the head to the east. The fences vary from 1.5 m to 9.6 m, the grave pits under stome kurgan mounds are covered with slabs that often are of considerable sizes. The depth of the burial pits vary from 0,6 m to 2, 5–3 meters, in places within the fence sometimes were installed deer stones, single slabs with images of deer, less frequently of the horses, accompanied with solar signs and armaments. A burial complex on the Lami mountain in the Nerchinsk area consisted of graves about 30 meters in length, not plundered fence was covered by several slabs each weighing up to 0,5 tons. Under cover slabs was an altar with skulls of horses, cows, below were five burial chambers for inhumation. Most of the graves were looted, the buried clothing and footwear is colorful, with various ornaments of bronze, bone and stone, plaques, buttons, necklaces, pendants, mirrors, cowrie shells. The accompanying tools are rare, Needles and needle beds, knives, even less common are weapons, arrowheads, daggers, bow end caps. In some graves are horse harnesses, whip handles, there are bronze objects, fewer iron and precious metals. Jars are round-bottom earthenware, some tripods, vessel ornament are impressions, rolled bands, indentations. The art of the Slab Grave Culture belongs to the animal style art that depicts domesticated and wild animals, daily life, the Slab Grave Culture art has many common features with cultures of Southern Siberia, Karasuk, Tagar, and others. Thousands of graves can now be seen in the southern Baikal area, in some cases they form a cemetery, with a clear plan and a strict order

28.
Xianbei state
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Like most ancient peoples known through Chinese historiography, the ethnic makeup of the Xianbei is unclear. The Xianbei were a branch of the earlier Proto-Mongolic Donghu. It should be pointed out that the names of the peoples, or subdivisions of peoples. The Xianbei state reached their height under the rule of the khagan Tanshihuai, Tanshihuai of the Xianbei divided his territory into three sections, the eastern, the middle and the western. From the You Beiping to the Liao River, connecting the Fuyu and Mo to the east, there were more than twenty counties. The darens were called Mijia, Queji, Suli and Huaitou, from the You Beiping to Shanggu to the west, it was the middle section. There were more than ten counties, the darens of this section were called Kezui, Queju, Murong, et al. From Shanggu to Dunhuang, connecting the Wusun to the west, there were more than twenty counties. The darens were called Zhijian Luoluo, Rilü Tuiyan, Yanliyou and these chiefs were all subordinate to Tanshihuai. Uneasiness at the Han court about this development of a new power on the steppes finally ushered in a campaign on the border to annihilate the confederacy once. Each military officer commanded 10,000 cavalrymen and advanced north on three different routes, aiming at each of the three federations, cavalry units commanded by chieftains of each of the three federations almost annihilated the invading forces. Eighty percent of the troops were killed and the three officers, who only brought tens of men back, were relieved from their posts. … Refined metals and wrought iron have come into the possession of the rebels, Han deserters also seek refuge and serve as their advisers. Their weapons are sharper and their horses are faster than those of the Xiong-nu, but in so doing they are only bent on gaining precious Chinese goods, it is not because they respect Chinese power or are grateful for Chinese generosity. As soon as they all they possibly can, they turn in their tracks to start wreaking damage. Tanshihuai died in 181 at the age of 40, the Xianbei state of Tanshihuai fragmented following the fall of Budugen, who was the younger brother of Kuitoi. Kuitou was the nephew of Tanshihuais incapable son and successor Helian, the economic base of the Xianbei was animal husbandry combined with agricultural practice. They were the first to develop the system, in which formation of social classes deepened

29.
Rouran Khaganate
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The Rouran Khaganate, Ruru, or Tantan was the name of a state established by proto-Mongols, from the late 4th century until the middle 6th century. Rouran is a Classical Chinese transcription of the endonym of the confederacy, ruanruan and Ruru remained in usage despite being derogatory. They derived from orders given by the Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei, according to René Grousset, Ju-juan – an alternate Chinese name for the Rouran – was a disparaging pun derived from Juan-Juan, unpleasantly wriggling insects. The power of the Rouran was broken in 555 by an alliance of Göktürks, the states of Northern Qi and Northern Zhou, and tribes in Central Asia. The Rouran were a confederation led by Xianbei people who remained in the Mongolian steppes after most Xianbei migrated south to Northern China and they considered the Tuoba and Rourans to be descended from common ancestors. Also some contemporary historians studying the history of Northern Wei, like Kwok Kin Poon and they were first noted as having defeated the Tiele and establishing an empire extending all the way to the Hulun, an alliance in eastern Inner Mongolia. During the reign of Yujiulü Shelun, Rouran became a powerful empire, to the west of the Rouran Khaganate was the Hephthalite Empire, which was a vassal of the Rouran until the beginning of the 5th century. The Hephthalites and Rouran had close contact, although they had different languages and cultures, in particular, the title “Khan“, which according to McGovern was original to the Rouran, was borrowed by the Hephthalite rulers. The reason for the migration of the Hephthalites southeast was to pressure from the Rouran. Further, the Hephthalites defeated the Yuezhi in Bactria and their leader Kidara led the Yuezhi to the south. The Rouran controlled the area of Mongolia from the Manchurian border to Turpan and, perhaps, the east coast of Lake Balkhash and their ancestor Mugulu is said to have been originally a slave of the Tuoba tribes, situated at the north banks of Yellow River Bend. Mugulus descendant Yujiulü Shelun is said to be the first chieftain who was able to unify the Rouran tribes and to found the power of the Rouran by defeating the Tiele and Xianbei. Shelun was also the first of the peoples to adopt the title of khagan in 402. The Rouran Khaganate arranged for one of their princesses, Khagan Yujiulü Anaguis daughter Princess Ruru, the Rouran and the Hephthalites had a falling out and problems within their confederation were encouraged by Chinese agents. In 508, the Tiele defeated the Rouran in battle, in 516, the Rouran defeated the Tiele. Within the Rouran confederation was a Turkic tribe noted in Chinese annals as the Göktürks, after a marriage proposal to the Rouran was rebuffed, the Göktürks joined the Western Wei, successor state of the Northern Wei, and revolted against the Rouran. In 555, they beheaded 3,000 Rouran, a better date for their defeat may be 552. Some scholars claim that the Rouran then fled west across the steppes and became the Avars, the remainder of the Rouran fled into China, were absorbed into the border guards, and disappeared forever as an entity

30.
Turkic Khaganate
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The Turkic Khaganate, Skyturks or Göktürk Khaganate was a khaganate established by the Ashina clan of the Göktürks in medieval Inner Asia. This khaganate interacted extensively with various dynasties based in North China, a century later, a second, renewed, Turkic Khaganate emerged in 682 and lasted until 744, when it was overthrown by the Uyghurs, a different Turkic-speaking group. The origins of the Türk Khanate trace back to 546, when Bumin Qaghan made a strike against the Uyghur and Tiele groups planning a revolt against their overlords. For this service he expected to be rewarded with a Rouran princess, however, the Rouran khagan, Yujiulü Anagui, sent an emissary to Bumin to rebuke him, saying, You are my blacksmith slave. How dare you utter these words, according to Denis Sinor, this reference indicates that the Türks specialized in metallurgy, although it is unclear if they were miners or, indeed, blacksmiths. Whatever the case, that the Turks were slaves need not be taken literally, a disappointed Bumin allied with the Western Wei against the Rouran, their common enemy. In 552, Bumin defeated Anagui and his forces north of Huaihuang, having excelled both in battle and diplomacy, Bumin declared himself Illig Khagan of the new khanate at Otukan, but died a year later. His son, Muqan Qaghan, defeated the Hephthalite Empire, Khitan, bumins brother Istämi bore the title Yabgu of the West and collaborated with the Sassanid Empire of Iran to defeat and destroy the Hephthalites, who were allies of the Rouran. This war tightened the Ashina clans grip on the Silk Road, Istämis policy of western expansion brought the Göktürks into Europe. In 576 the Göktürks crossed the Kerch Strait into the Crimea, five years later they laid siege to Chersonesus, their cavalry kept roaming the steppes of Crimea until 590. As for the borders, they were drawn south of the Amu Darya, bringing the Ashina into conflict with their former allies. Much of Bactria remained a dependency of the Ashina until the end of the century, the Turkic Khanate split in two after the death of the fourth ruler, Taspar Qaghan, ca. He had willed the title of khagan to Muqans son Apa Qaghan, before long, four rivals claimed the title. They were successfully played off against each other by Sui and Tang China, the most serious contender was the western one, Istämis son Tardu, a violent and ambitious man who had already declared himself independent from the Qaghan after his fathers death. He now seized the title and led an army east to claim the seat of imperial power, in order to buttress his position, Ishbara of the Eastern Khaganate applied to Emperor Yang of Sui for protection. Tardu attacked Changan, the Sui capital, around 600, demanding Emperor Yangdi end his interference in the civil war, in retaliation, Chinese diplomacy successfully incited a revolt of Tardus Tiele vassals, which led to the end of Tardus reign in 603. Among the dissident tribes were the Uyghurs and Xueyantuo, the civil war left the empire divided into eastern and western parts. The eastern part, still ruled from Otukan, remained in the orbit of the Sui, the Shibi Khan and Illig Qaghan attacked China at its weakest moment during the transition between the Sui and Tang

31.
Xueyantuo
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Initially the Xue and the Yantuo were two separate tribes. The Xue appeared earlier as Xinli but were not referred to again until the 7th century, after Yishibo, the Xueyantuo founded a short-lived Qaghanate over the steppe under Zhenzhu Khan, his son Duomi Khan and nephew Yitewushi Khan, the last of which eventually surrendered to the Chinese. On March 27,630, the Xueyantuo allied with the Chinese to defeat the Eastern Qaghanate in the Yin Mountains, illig Qaghan escaped, but was handed over to the Chinese by his subordinate qaghan on May 2. In 632 they repulsed an army of Si Yabgu Qaghan from the Western Qaghanate, then subjugated the Qarluq at the Ulungur and Irtysh River, and the Yenisei Kyrgyz tribes. In 634 one of their rivals, Dubu Qaghan, son of Chuluo Khan and he allied with his nephew Ashina Heluohu, choosing him as the leader of the raid on May 19. They were unsuccessful and over 40 rebels were executed, Heluohu was spared and expelled to the far south. After this incident, an arraignment was made on August 13, among the Göktürk nobles, Ashina Simo was selected as the qaghan with his capital at the border. The plot failed, as he was unable to gather his people and those defeats by the advancing Chinese had made their tribal allies lose confidence in them. The crisis deepened the next year when a coup took place within the clan. On August 1,646, they were defeated by the Uyghur, the Xueyantuos Duomi Khan, Bazhuo, was killed by the Uyghur. A Tang army led by the general Li Daozong, the Prince of Jiangxia crushed the Xueyantuo forces, the last Xueyantuo khan, the Yitewushi Khan Duomozhi, surrendered. For a relationship with the later Shato Turks, see Shato and their remnants were destroyed two years later, on September 15. It is possible that Bo was influenced by the Tongdian which asserted the Xueyantuo surname as Yilitu or certain studies that was made, according to Cen Zhongmian the forementioned name are related to the variant of elteris. Duan Lianqin asserted that the name Yishibo can also be interchangeable as Yedie. During the late Tang Dynasty, a group of Xueyantuo remnants known as Shatuo began to play an important role in Chinese politics. Leaders of the following Jin Kingdom, the Later Tang, the Later Jin, the Later Han, list of Turkic dynasties and countries Timeline of Turks Xue Selenga River Later Tang Sir-Kıvchak

32.
Protectorate General to Pacify the North
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In 646 the Tang dynasty conquered the Xuyantuo and on 9 January 647,13 Tiele and Uyghur tribes surrendered to the Tang. Tang Taizong organized them into six commanderies and seven tributary prefectures under the Jimi system, the six commanderies were Hanhai, Jinwei, Yanran, Youling, Guilin, and Lushan. The seven prefectures were Gaolan, Gaoque, Jilu, Jitian, Yuxi, Dailin, collectively these were known as the Cantian Khan Circuit. On 5 February 663 the Yanran Protectorate was renamed Hanhai Protectorate, in August 669 the Hanhai Protectorate was renamed the Protectorate General to Pacify the North, otherwise known as the Anbei Duhufu. Its seat was relocated to the city of Datong in present day Ejin Banner, in 687 the seat of Anbei was moved to the city of Xian near modern Minle County due to incursions by the Second Turkic Khaganate. In 698 the seat was moved to Yunzhong near modern Horinger, in 708 the Shuofang Army general Zhang Renyuan ordered the construction of three Shouxiang cities north of the Yellow River as military outposts to deter incursions from the Second Turkic Khaganate. The seat of Anbei was moved to the western Shouxiang city near modern Wuyuan County, in 711 the Chanyu Protectorate was re-established alongside the Anbei Protectorate in the city of western Shouxiang. In 714 the Anbei and Chanyu protectorates were separated, Chanyu was re-located to Yunzhong while Anbei was re-located to the middle Shouxiang city, near modern Baotou. Following the establishment of the Shuofang Jiedushi in 721, both the posts of Anbei and Chanyu protector generals were held concurrently by the Shuofang Jiedushi, in 749 the seat was moved to the military settlement of Hengsai, near modern day Urad Middle Banner. Due to unfavorable farming conditions near the Hengsai settlement, Guo Ziyi resettled the army near modern Urad Front Banner in 755, following the An Lushan Rebellion, the Chanyu and Anbei protectorates lost any real authority and survived in name only. Due to the taboo of An Lushans name, the Anbei Protectorate was renamed the Zhenbei Protectorate, in 758 the Hengsai Army changed its name to Tiande Army. In 784 the Anbei Protectorate was abolished, in 843 the Chanyu Protectorate was renamed Anbei Protectorate. Youguan Tang Anbei Duhufu De Jige Wenti, ISSN 1001-0483 Wang, Jilin, Anbei Duhufu. Chinese Encyclopedia, 1st ed. Zhou, Weiyan, Duhufu, Encyclopedia of China, 1st ed Xue, Zongzheng. Central Asia and Non-Chinese Peoples of Ancient China

33.
Uyghur Khaganate
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The Uyghur Khaganate, was a Turkic empire that existed for about a century between the mid 8th and 9th centuries. They were a confederation under the Orkhon Uyghur nobility, referred to by the Chinese as the Jiu Xing. In the Gobi, the Tang dynasty was supported by the Uighurs after the Uighurs left the control of the Western Turks due to the defeat by the Western Turks by Tang Taizong. In 627-628 a revolt of the Uighurs against the Turkic Khaganate weakened the Turks, in 742, the Old Uyghurs, Karluks, and Basmyls rebelled against the ruling Göktürks. The Basmyls captured the Göktürk capital, Otukan, and the Göktürk king, Özmish Khan, in 744, however, a Uyghur-Karluk alliance against the Basmyls was formed later the same year. The coalition defeated the Basmyls and beheaded their king, the Basmyl tribes were effectively destroyed, their people sold to the Chinese or distributed amongst the victors. The Uyghur leader became the khagan in Mongolia and the Karluk leader the yabgu and this arrangement, however, lasted less than a year, as hostilities between the Uyghurs and Karluks forced the Karluks to migrate westward into the western Turgesh lands. The Uyghur leader was from the Yaghlakar clan, called Qullığ Boyla and he took the title Qutlugh Bilge Köl Kaghan Glorious, wise, mighty kaghan, claiming to be the supreme ruler of all the tribes and built his capital at Ordu-Baliq. In 747, the Qutlugh Bilge Köl Kaghan died, leaving his youngest son, Bayanchur Khan to reign as Khagan El etmish bilge State settled, wise. After building a number of trading outposts with the Han Chinese, Bayanchur Khan used the profits to build the capital, Ordu-Baliq, the new khagan then embarked on a series of campaigns to bring all the steppe peoples under his banner. During this time the Empire vastly expanded, with Sekiz Oghuz, Qïrghïz, Qarluqs, Türgish, Toquz Tatars, Chiks, the rebellion of An Lushan in Tang China in 755 forced Emperor Suzong to turn to Bayanchur Khan for assistance in 756. As a result, in 757 the Uyghurs received 20,000 rolls of silk as tribute from the Chinese, Bayanchur Khan was given the daughter of the Chinese Emperor to marry, while Emperor Suzong was given a Uyghur princess. In 758, the Uyghurs turned their attentions to a rival tribe to the north. Bayanchur Khan destroyed several of their trading outposts before slaughtering a Kyrgyz army, in 759, Bayanchur Khan died after drinking heavily at a celebration. His son, Tengri Bögü, succeeded him as Khagan Qutlugh Tarkhan sengün, at Tingzhou the Uighurs and Chinese were defeated by the Tibetans which led to the Gansu corridor being taken away from Tang rule in 791. Professor James A. Millward described the original Uyghurs as phenotypically East Asian in appearance, Millward gives as an example the images of the Uyghur patrons at temple 9 in the Bezeklik caves. During the reign of Tengri Bögü the Uyghur Khaganate reached the height of its power, in 762, with the help of Tengri Bögü, the Tang Emperor Daizong finally quelled the An Lushan rebellion, and the eastern capital Luoyang was recaptured. Khagan Tengri Bögü met with Manichaean priests from Iran while on campaign and was converted to Manichaeism, one effect of this conversion was the increased influence of Sogdia in the Uyghur court

34.
Liao dynasty
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The Liao dynasty was founded by Abaoji, Khagan of the Khitan people around the time of the collapse of Tang China. It was the first state to all of Manchuria. Almost immediately after its founding, the Liao dynasty began a process of territorial expansion, tension between traditional Khitan social and political practices and Chinese influence and customs was a defining feature of the dynasty. So different were Khitan and Chinese practices that Abaoji set up two parallel governments, Khitan women were taught to hunt, managed family property, and held military posts. Many marriages were not arranged, women were not required to be virgins at their first marriage, the Liao dynasty was destroyed by the Jurchen people of the Jin dynasty in 1125 with the capture of Emperor Tianzuo of Liao. However, the remnant Khitan, led by Yelü Dashi, established the Qara Khitai, the Liao dynasty was officially known as the Khitan（now known as Cathay） or Khitan state in 916. The name Great Liao began to appear as the name between 936 and 947. The dynasty name Liao means iron, but it refers to the Liao River in southern Manchuria. Since 983 the state became known as the Khitan, but Great Liao reappeared as the country name in 1066. Neither the origins, ethnic makeup, nor early history of the Khitans are well documented in historical records, the earliest reference to a Khitan state is found in the Book of Wei, a history of the Northern Wei Dynasty that was completed in 554. Several books written after 554 mention the Khitans as being active during the late third, the Book of Jin, a history of the Jin dynasty, refers to the Khitans in the section covering the reign of Murong Sheng. Samguk Sagi, a history of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, Twitchett and Klaus-Peter Tietze, it is generally held that the Khitans emerged from the Yuwen branch of the Xianbei people. Following a defeat at the hands of another branch of the Xianbei in 345, in 388 the Kumo Xi itself split, with one group remaining under the name Kumo Xi and the other group becoming the Khitans. This view is backed up by the Book of Wei. There are also several competing theories on the origin of the Khitans, beginning in the Song dynasty, some Chinese scholars suggested that the Khitans might have descended from the Xiongnu people. While modern historians have rejected the idea that the Khitan were solely Xiongnu in origin, there is support for the claim that they are of mixed Xianbei. By the time the Book of Wei was written in 554, the Khitans suffered a series of military defeats to other nomadic groups in the region, as well as to the Chinese Northern Qi and Sui Dynasties. Khitan tribes at various times fell under the influence of Turkic tribes such as the Uighurs and Chinese dynasties such as the Sui and this influence would significantly shape Khitan language and culture

35.
Khamag Mongol
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Khamag Mongol was a major Mongolic tribal confederation on the Mongolian Plateau in the 12th century. It is sometimes considered a predecessor state to the Mongol Empire. Existence of a mysterious tribal power known in Mongol tradition as Khamag Mongol Uls recorded in sources of Khitan Liao dynasty in North China. After the fall of Liao dynasty in 1125, the Khamag Mongols began to play an important role on the Mongolian plains and they occupied one of the most fertile lands of the country, the basins of the river Onon, Kherlen and Tuul Rivers in the Khentii Mountains. The Taichiud was one of the three tribes in the Khamag Mongol Khanate of Mongolia during the 12th century and whose people lived in the southern part of Russian Zabaykalsky Krai. Zabaykalsky Krai and the Mongolian Khentii Province were core regions of the Khamag Mongol Khanate, the Khamags consisted of the four core clans Khiyad, Taichuud, Jalairs and Jirukhen. The first khan of Khamag Mongol recorded in history is Khabul Khan from the Borjigin clan, Khabul Khan successfully repelled the invasions of the Jurchen Jin armies. Khabul Khan was succeeded by Ambaghai Khagann of the Taichiud, Ambagai was captured by the Tatar confederation while delivering his daughter for marriage to their leadership. He was handed over to the Jin, who executed him. Ambaghai was succeeded by Hotula Khan, a son of Khabul Khan, Hotula Khan engaged the Tatars in 13 battles in an effort to obtain vengeance for the death of Ambagai Khan. Khamag Mongol was unable to elect a khan after Hotula died, however, Khabuls grandson Yesugei, who was a chief of the Khiyad tribe, was an effective and preeminent leader of Khamag Mongol. Temujin, the future Genghis Khan, was born into Yesukheis family as the first son in Delüün Boldog on the reaches of the Onon river in 1162. Yesukhei was poisoned by the Tatars in 1170 and shortly after Yesukhei died, the Khamag Mongol began to disintegrate after Yesugeis death in 1171. Political anarchy and a power vacuum lasted until 1189 when Temujin became the Khan of the Khamag Mongol, war broke soon out between other Mongol tribes. Temujins friend Jamukha was recognized by the tribes as Gur-Khan in 1201 but he was defeated by the alliance of Khamag Mongol. When Tooril Khan refused to cement the alliance with the Khamag, Temujin united all clans on the Mongolian plateau at last in 1206, when he was given the title Genghis Khan. List of medieval Mongol tribes and clans Akademiiya nauk SSSR - History of the Mongolian Peoples Republic, house, Central Dept. of Oriental Literature,1973 Bat-Ochir Bold - Mongolian Nomadic Society, St. Martins Press,1999

36.
Mongol Empire
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The Mongol Empire existed during the 13th and 14th centuries and was the largest contiguous land empire in history. The Mongol Empire emerged from the unification of tribes in the Mongol homeland under the leadership of Genghis Khan. The empire grew rapidly under the rule of him and his descendants, the Toluids prevailed after a bloody purge of Ögedeid and Chagataid factions, but disputes continued even among the descendants of Tolui. Kublai successfully took power, but civil war ensued as Kublai sought unsuccessfully to control of the Chagatayid and Ögedeid families. The Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260 marked the point of the Mongol conquests and was the first time a Mongol advance had ever been beaten back in direct combat on the battlefield. In 1304, the three western khanates briefly accepted the suzerainty of the Yuan dynasty, but it was later taken by the Han Chinese Ming dynasty in 1368. What is referred to in English as the Mongol Empire was called the Ikh Mongol Uls, in the 1240s, one of Genghiss descendants, Güyük Khan, wrote a letter to Pope Innocent IV which used the preamble Dalai Khagan of the great Mongolian state. After the succession war between Kublai Khan and his brother Ariq Böke, Ariq limited Kublais power to the part of the empire. Kublai officially issued an edict on December 18,1271 to name the country Great Yuan to establish the Yuan dynasty. Some sources state that the full Mongolian name was Dai Ön Yehe Monggul Ulus, the area around Mongolia, Manchuria, and parts of North China had been controlled by the Liao dynasty since the 10th century. In 1125, the Jin dynasty founded by the Jurchens overthrew the Liao dynasty, in the 1130s the Jin dynasty rulers, known as the Golden Kings, successfully resisted the Khamag Mongol confederation, ruled at the time by Khabul Khan, great-grandfather of Temujin. The Mongolian plateau was occupied mainly by five powerful tribal confederations, Keraites, Khamag Mongol, Naiman, Mergid, khabuls successor was Ambaghai Khan, who was betrayed by the Tatars, handed over to the Jurchen, and executed. The Mongols retaliated by raiding the frontier, resulting in a failed Jurchen counter-attack in 1143, in 1147, the Jin somewhat changed their policy, signing a peace treaty with the Mongols and withdrawing from a score of forts. The Mongols then resumed attacks on the Tatars to avenge the death of their late khan, the Jin and Tatar armies defeated the Mongols in 1161. During the rise of the Mongol Empire in the 13th century and it is thought that as a result, a rapid increase in the number of war horses and other livestock significantly enhanced Mongol military strength. Known during his childhood as Temujin, Genghis Khan was the son of a Mongol chieftain, when he was young he was from one of Yesugis orphaned and deserted families, he rose very rapidly by working with Toghrul Khan of the Kerait. Kurtait was the most powerful Mongol leader during this time and was given the Chinese title Wang which means Prince, Temujin went to war with Wang Khan. After Temujin defeated Wang Khan he gave himself the name Genghis Khan and he then enlarged his Mongol state under himself and his kin

37.
Mongolia under Yuan rule
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The Yuan dynasty ruled over the Mongolian steppe, including both Inner and Outer Mongolia as well as part of southern Siberia, for roughly a century between 1271 and 1368. The Mongols came from the Mongolian steppe, and Karakorum was the capital of the Mongol Empire until 1260, during the Toluid Civil War, Mongolia was controlled by Ariq Böke, a younger brother of Kublai Khan. There were many Mongolian princes concentrated in the Mongolian steppe, whose influence extended into the Yuan capital, in fact, in order to maintain his claim as the Great Khan, Kublai Khan made significant efforts to control and restore peace in Mongolia after the Toluid Civil War. In 1266, Nomukhan, one of Kublais favorite sons, was dispatched to Mongolia to guard the north, during the Kaidu–Kublai war which lasted a few decades, Kaidu, the de facto ruler of the Chagatai Khanate, tried to take control of Mongolia from Kublai Khan. In fact he shortly occupied large parts of Mongolia, although it was recovered by the Yuan commander Bayan of the Baarin. Temür was later appointed a governor in Karakorum and Bayan became a minister, after all, the Yuan court needed the allegiance of the Mongol aristocracy as a whole even when it was forced to strike against individual members. After the death of the Crown Prince Zhenjin in 1286, Kublai Khan decided to make Zhenjins son Temur his successor, after Kublai Khans death in 1294, Temür, who previously garrisoned in Mongolia, returned to the Yuan capital to become the next ruler of the empire. In 1307, when Temür Khan died, he returned eastward to Karakorum and he eventually succeeded to the throne with the support of his mother and younger brother, Ayurbarwada. It was renamed to the Lingbei Branch Secretariat or simply the Lingbei province by his successor Ayurbarwada in 1312, after the civil war Tugh Temür abdicated in favor of his older brother Kusala, who enthroned himself on February 27,1329 north of Karakorum. However, he died only four days after a banquet with Tugh Temür on his way to Khanbaliq. Then Tugh Temür was restored to the throne on September 8, after the capture of the Yuan capital by the Ming dynasty founded by Han Chinese in 1368, the last Yuan emperor Toghon Temür fled north to Shangdu, then to Yingchang and died there in 1370. The Mongols under his son and successor Biligtü Khan Ayushiridara retreated to the Mongolian steppe, the Mongolian homeland became the ruling center of the Northern Yuan dynasty, which would last until the 17th century. Toluid Civil War Mongolia under Qing rule Manchuria under Yuan rule Korea under Yuan rule Tibet under Yuan rule Yuan dynasty in Inner Asia History of Mongolia

38.
Northern Yuan dynasty
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Dayan Khan and Mandukhai Khatun reunited the entire Mongol nation in the 15th century. However, the distribution of his empire among his sons. The last sixty years of this period are marked by intensive penetration of Tibetan Buddhism into Mongolian society, the term Northern Yuan is derived from the corresponding term in the Chinese language. However, in the English language the term Northern Yuan is still used to cover the period for historiography reasons. Apart from the name Great Yuan in the period, the Mongols called their nation Ikh Mongol Uls. In Mongolian chronicles this period is known as The Forty. Furthermore, Mongolian historiography also use the term Period of political disunion, the Mongol Yuan dynasty ruled all of China for about a century. However, the Mongols dominated North China for more than 140 years, in 1351, the Red Turban Rebellion started and grew into a nationwide turmoil. Eventually, Zhu Yuanzhang, a Chinese peasant established the Ming dynasty in South China, toghon Temür, the last ruler of the Yuan, fled north to Shangdu from Dadu in 1368 after the approach of the forces of the Míng dynasty. He had tried to regain Dadu, but eventually failed, he died in Yingchang two years later, Yingchang was seized by the Ming shortly after his death. The Ming army pursued the Mongol forces of the Northern Yuan into Mongolia in 1372, in 1375, Naghachu, a Mongol official of Biligtu Khan in Liaoyang province invaded Liaodong with aims of restoring the Mongols to power. Although he continued to hold southern Manchuria, Naghachu finally surrendered to the Ming dynasty in 1387–88 after a successful diplomacy of the latter, the Yuan loyalists under Kublaid prince Basalawarmi in Yunnan and Guizhou were also destroyed by the Ming in 1381-82. The Ming tried again towards the Northern Yuan in 1380, ultimately winning a victory over Mongol forces around the Buir Lake region in 1388. About 70,000 Mongols were taken prisoner and the Mongol capital Karakorum was sacked and destroyed and it effectively destroyed the power of the Khaans Mongols for a long time, and allowed the Western Mongols to become supreme. Field guns and hand cannons were used by the Northern Yuan army, in 1388, the Northern Yuan throne was taken over by Yesüder, a descendant of Arik Böke, instead of the descendants of Kublai Khan. After the death of his master Togus Temur, Gunashiri, a descendant of Chagatai Khan, the following century saw a succession of Chinggisid rulers, many of whom were mere figureheads put on the throne by those warlords who happened to be the most powerful. From the end of the 14th century there appear designations such as period of kings for this period in modern historiography. On one side stood the Oirats in the west against the Eastern Mongols, while the Oirats drew their side to the descendants of Arik Boke and other princes, Arugtai of the Asud supported the old Yuan khans

39.
Four Oirat
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The Oirats were one of the forest peoples who lived in west of the Mongols of Genghis Khan. They submitted to Genghis in 1207 and played prominent roles in the history of the Mongol Empire, after the overthrow of the Yuan dynasty, Möngke-Temür, a high official of the Yuan, had placed himself at the head of the Oirats. When he died, three chieftains, Mahamu, Taiping and Batu-bolad, ruled them and they sent envoys with gifts to the Ming dynasty. In 1409, the Yongle Emperor bestowed upon them the title of wang in return, the Oirats began to challenge the Borjigin Emperors in the reign of Elbeg Khan. It is curious to find one of the 3 chief was with Muslim name, before 1640, the Oirats had been wavering between the two faiths, Islam and Buddhism. Both these creeds had supporters among the pagan Oirats, the Chinese Yongle Emperor demanded Öljei Temür Khan Bunyashiri to accept his supremacy in 1409 but Öljei Temür refused and defeated a Ming force the next year. In 1412 a large force under Yongle forced Öljei Temür Khan to flee westward, the Oirats led by Mahamu of Choros killed Öljei Temür who suffered great loss. The Western Mongols had Delbeg Khan, a descendant of Ariq Böke, whose family had been relegated to Mongolia during the Yuan, however, the Eastern Mongols under Arugtai of the Asud refused to accept the new khan and they were in constant war with each other. The Ming dynasty intervened aggressively against any overpowerful Mongol leader, exacerbating the Mongol-Oirat conflict, in 1408 Mahamu was succeeded by his son Toghan, who continued his strife with Arugtai chingsang. By 1437, Toghan had totally defeated Arugtai and an Ögedeid Emperor Adai Khan, Toghan made Genghisid princes his puppet khans of the Mongolia-based Northern Yuan dynasty. When he died in 1438, his son Esen became a taishi, the Oirats had close relations with Moghulistan and Hami where the Chagatayid Khans reigned. From the Ming chronicles, it is known that the Oirats conducted regular raids on those areas, Esen crushed the Moghulistan and Hami monarchs and forced them to accept him as their overlord. He also conquered Outer and Inner Mongolia and subjugated the Jurchens in Manchuria, the Mings Zhengtong Emperor was captured by Esen in 1449. During his reign, the Oirat headquarters was centered on north-west Mongolia and Barkol, Esen relied on Muslim merchants from Samarkand, Hami and Turpan and his own royal house, Choros was related to Moghulistan according to a myth. After murdering Khagan Agbarjin, Esen took the title khan for himself, but soon after he was overthrown by the Oirat noblemen and killed by a son of a man whom he executed. Esens death broke up the unity of the Oirats and they now warred with each other for leadership. Esens son Amasanj moved west, pillaging the lands of Hami, Moghulistan, from 1480 on, the Eastern Mongols under Mandukhai Khatun and Dayan Khan pushed the Oirats westward. By 1510 Dayan Khan had unified the entire Mongol nation including Oirats, however, the Khalkhas and some princes of southwest Inner Mongolia repeatedly launched massive attacks on the Oirats and looted their properties in the Irtysh, Barkol and Altai from 1552-1628

40.
Dzungar Khanate
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The Dzungar Khanate, also written as the Zunghar Khanate, was an Oirat khanate on the Eurasian Steppe. It covered the area called Dzungaria and stretched from the west end of the Great Wall of China to present-day Kazakhstan, most of this area today is part of the Xinjiang autonomous region in China, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. The Dzungar Khanate was the last major nomadic empire left from the Mongol Empire, in 1678, Galdan received from the Dalai Lama the title of Boshogtu Khan, thus confirming the Dzungars as the leading tribe within the Oirats. However, the Dzungar rulers bore the title of Khong Tayiji, Dzungar is a compound of the Mongolian word jegün, meaning left or east and γar meaning hand or wing. The region of Dzungaria derives its name from this confederation, although the Dzungars were located west of the Eastern Mongols, the derivation of their name has been attributed to the fact that they represented the left wing of the Oirats. In the early 17th century, the head of the Oirat confederation was the leader of the Khoshut, Gushi Khan. When Gushi Khan decided to invade Tibet to replace the local Tsangpa Khan in favor of the Tibetan Geluk Sect, the Dzungar Khanate is memorable because it was the last of the steppe nomadic empires and because of its influence on the westward expansion of the Chinese state. About 1620 the Oirats or western Mongols became united in Dzungaria, by about 1680 they had conquered the Tarim Basin to the south. In 1688 Galdan defeated the Khalkhas or eastern Mongols, many of whom fled southeast to Inner Mongolia where they became, in 1696, the Manchu defeated Galdan near Ulan Bator, chased him westward and gained control over Outer Mongolia. In 1717 Tsewang Rabtan sent an army to Tibet, the Manchu drove the Dzungars out and established a protectorate over Tibet. In 1750-57, the Manchu took advantage of a Dzungar civil war to conquer Dzungaria, the Manchu turned south and annexed the Tarim Basin by 1759, thus completing the current western border of China. The chiefs of the Dzungars were of the Choros lineage and reckoned their descent from the Oirat taishis Toghoon, Early in his reign, Khara Kula united the Choros, Dorbod and Khoid tribes, thus forming the Dzungar nation. In the 1620s wars against the Khalkha, he could gain decisive victory over the Eastern Mongols, the Oirats homeland was under the dominion of Jasaghtu Khan of the Khalkha. In 1623 the Oirat confederation killed Ubashi Khong Tayiji, and secured their independence, at the time, only Torobaikhu, a leader of the Khoshud tribe could claim the title of Khan while Baatur Dalai Taishi of the Dorbods was considered the most powerful Oirat chief. Even so, Khara Khulas son Baatur Khung Taiji joined the 1636-42 expedition to Tibet led by Güshi Khan Torobaikhu, after Baatur returned to Dzungaria with the title Erdeni and much booty, he made three expeditions against the Kazakhs. With the migrations of the Torghuds, the Khoshuds and the Dorbods from 1630 to 1677, the conflicts by the Dzungars are remembered in a Kazakh ballad Elim-ai. The Dzungars went to war against the Kyrgyz, Tajiks, Uzbeks, in 1653 Sengge succeeded his father Baatur Khung Taiji as Dzungarian chief, but an internal strife with his half brother Chechen Tayiji involved the Khoshuud. From 1657 on, Amin-Daras sons Sengge and Galdan faced disafection from their half-brothers, with the support of Ochirtu Khan of the Khoshuud, this strife ended with Sengges victory in 1661

41.
Mongolia under Qing rule
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Mongolia here is understood in the broader historical sense. The last Mongol Khagan Ligdan saw much of his power weakened in his quarrels with the Mongol tribes and was defeated by the Manchus and his son Ejei Khan gave Hong Taiji the imperial authority, ending the rule of Northern Yuan dynasty then centered in Inner Mongolia by 1635. However, the Khalkha Mongols in Outer Mongolia continued to rule until they were overrun by the Dzungars in 1690, the Manchu-led Qing dynasty had ruled Inner and Outer Mongolia for over 200 years. During this period Qing rulers established separate administrative structures to govern each region, during the course of the 17th and 18th centuries, most regions inhabited by ethnic Mongols, notably Outer and Inner Mongolia became part of the Qing Empire. Even before the dynasty began to control of China proper in 1644. The Manchus conquered a Mongol tribe in the process of war against the Ming, nurhacis early relations with the Mongols tribes was mainly an alliance. After Ligdens defeat and death his son had to submit to the Manchus, the Khalkha Mongols in Outer Mongolia joined in 1691 when their defeat by the Dzungars left them without a chance to remain independent. The Khoshud in Qinghai were conquered in 1723/24, the Dzungars were finally destroyed, and their territory conquered, in 1756/57 during the Dzungar genocide. The last Mongols to join the empire were the returning Torgud Kalmyks at the Ili in 1771, after conquering the Ming, the Qing identified their state as Zhongguo, and referred to it as Dulimbai Gurun in Manchu. When the Qing conquered Dzungaria in 1759, they proclaimed that the new land which belonged to the Dzungar Mongols was now absorbed into China in a Manchu language memorial. From the early years, the Manchus relations with the neighboring Mongol tribes had been crucial in the dynasty development, Nurhaci had exchanged wives and concubines with the Khalkha Mongols since 1594, and also received titles from them in the early 17th century. He also consolidated his relationship with portions of the Khorchin and Kharachin populations of eastern Mongols and they recognized Nurhaci as Khan, and in return leading lineages of those groups were titled by Nurhaci and married with his extended family. Nurhaci chose to emphasize either differences or similarities in lifestyles with the Mongols for political reasons. Nurhaci said to the Mongols that The languages of the Chinese and Koreans are different and it is the same with us Manchus and Mongols. Our languages are different, but our clothing and way of life is the same and my people till the fields and live on grain. We two are not one country and we have different languages, the banners and other Manchu institutions are examples of productive hybridity, combining pure Mongolian elements and Han Chinese elements. Intermarriage with Mongolian noble families had significantly cemented the alliance between the two peoples, Hong Taiji further expanded the marriage alliance policy, he used the marriage ties to draw in more of the twenty-one Inner Mongolian tribes that joined the Manchus alliance. Ejei Khan was given the title of Prince, the surrendered Inner Mongols were divided into separate administrative banners

42.
Mongolian Revolution of 1911
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The Mongolian Revolution of 1911 occurred when the region of Outer Mongolia declared its independence from the Manchu-led Qing dynasty during the Xinhai Revolution. A combination of factors including economic hardship and failure to resist Western imperialism led many in China to be unhappy with the Qing government. When a new program to colonize Mongolia with Han Chinese and assimilate the natives was unveiled, many Barga and Inner Mongolian chieftains assisted in the revolution and became the revolution leaders. By the early 20th century, Mongolia was impoverished, repercussions from the Taiping Rebellion were primarily responsible for this economic deterioration. Loss of tax revenue from South China during the rebellion and expenses for its suppression had depleted the Qing treasury, silver, rather than livestock as was the custom, became the primary medium for paying taxes. The major source of silver for Mongolians was from loans borrowed from Chinese merchants and these loans, transacted at crippling interest rates, were repaid in livestock, which was then exported to China. The result was a decline in the size of the herds upon which the livelihood of Mongolians depended. A disintegrating economy, growing debt, and increasing tax demands were ingredients of social and political unrest in Mongolia, however, it was Qing plans for the transformation of Outer Mongolia that produced the impetus for rebellion. The Qing dynasty was founded by the Manchu clan Aisin Gioro in what is today Northeast China, attempts were made to keep the Manchu strain ethnically pure, although these efforts proved fruitless. The early Manchu rulers enacted various laws to isolate Manchuria from China proper and they did the same for the Mongols, Han Chinese were prohibited from entering Mongolia and Mongols were not allowed to travel outside their own leagues. Mongols were forbidden from speaking Chinese languages or intermarrying with the Han Chinese, while over time enforcement waned, the laws still remained on the books, receiving at least token observance. Western imperialism in China during the part of the 19th century changed political priorities in China. The Boxer Rebellion, and particularly Japan’s victory over Russia in 1905, were interpreted in China as the triumph of constitutionalism over autocracy. It was then that far-reaching economic, political, and military reforms, in Outer Mongolia, however, the New Administration was accented rather differently. The aim was not simply modernization, as it was in Han Chinese territories, the Qing rulers believed that survival of their state as an integral entity depended on the effectiveness of their frontier serving as a protective shield for China proper. To accomplish this, the peoples inhabiting this region would have to become Chinese, between 1901 and 1910, therefore, the Qing government inaugurated an expansive plan for Chinese colonization of the frontier and reorganization of its native governments. He immediately set about organizing twenty offices to oversee such matters as the military, taxation, police, government, plans were made for the colonization of Mongolia with Chinese farmers. In January 1911 a Lieutenant Colonel Tang Zaili arrived to supervise the organization of a Mongolian army, a 400-room barracks was erected near Urga

43.
Occupation of Mongolia
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These, in turn, were defeated by the Red Army and its Mongolian allies by June 1921. Although the Beiyang Government abolished the autonomy of the Bogd Khaanate of Mongolia and subsequently expanded its occupation to include Tuva, in December 1911, Outer Mongolia took advantage of the Xinhai Revolution to declare independence from the Qing dynasty. The political system of new Mongolia was a theocratic monarchy led by Bogd Khan. However, the newly founded Republic of China considered Mongolia as part of its territory, in the 1915 tripartite Kyakhta Agreement, Russia, the Republic of China and Mongolia agreed that Mongolia was autonomous under Chinese suzerainty. However, in the following years Russian influence in Asia waned due to the First World War and, later, the October Revolution. From 1918 on, Mongolia was threatened by the Russian Civil War, and in summer 1918 asked for Chinese military assistance, grigory Semyonov led the Buryats and Inner Mongols in spearheading a plan to create a pan-Mongol state. According to an Associated Press dispatch, some Mongol chieftains signed a petition asking China to retake administration of Mongolia, an ally of the Chinese government, the Qinghai born Monguor Gelugpa Buddhist Lama leader Sixth Janggiya Khutughtu was against the autonomy of Outer Mongolia. The invasion of Mongolia was the brainchild of Premier Duan Qirui, when Duan engineered Chinas entry into the First World War he took out several large loans from the Japanese government including the Nishihara Loans. He used the money to create the War Participation Army ostensibly to battle the Central Powers and his rivals knew the purpose of this army was to crush internal dissent. It existed outside of the Ministry of the Army and was controlled by the War Participation Bureau, which the premier led, President Feng Guozhang, Duans rival, had no control, despite constitutionally being commander-in-chief. When the war ended without a soldier stepping foot abroad, his critics demanded the disbanding of the War Participation Army, Duan had to find a new purpose for his army. His reputation as a patriot was discredited, the Constitutional Protection War was fought to a bloody standstill in Hunan. Using his army for another attempt to retake southern China from the rebels was undesirable. The Russian Civil War left Mongolia without a foreign protector, an easy victory would boost Duans stature. Mongolias long running prime minister, Tögs-Ochiryn Namnansüren, died in April 1919 leaving the ruling elite deeply divided over a successor. Some of Mongolias princes, as well as its Han Chinese, Anhui clique was also known as Anfu group. The Anfu Club was bribed by Japan to implement in Mongolia the strategies of Japan, the War Participation Army was renamed the Northwestern Frontier Army. Duan gave control of it to his right-hand, Xu Shuzheng and they announced the expedition was at the invitation of several Mongolian princes to protect Mongolia from Bolshevik incursions

44.
Mongolian Revolution of 1921
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Although nominally independent, the Mongolian Peoples Republic was a satellite state of the Soviet Union until 1990. The revolution also ended Chinese occupation over Mongolia, which had existed since 1919, official Mongolian name of the revolution is Peoples Revolution of 1921 or simply Peoples Revolution. For about two centuries, the Qing dynasty had enforced—albeit with mixed success—a policy of segregating the non-Han peoples on the frontier from Han Chinese. By the end of the 19th century, however, China faced the prospect of being parcelled out among the Western powers and Japan, on the northern frontier, Russian Empire was viewed by the Qing court as posing the greatest threat to its territorial integrity. In July 1911 a group of Khalkha nobles persuaded the Jebtsundamba Khutuktu, the head of Mongolian Buddhism and they agreed to send a small delegation to Russia to obtain its assistance in this undertaking. In October 1911 revolution broke out in China, with one province after another declaring its independence from the Qing government, on 1 December 1911 Outer Mongolia declared independence, and established a theocracy under the Khutuktu. On 29 December he was installed as the Bogd Khaan of Mongolia and this ushered in the Bogd Khaan era, which lasted from 1911 to 1919. The new Mongolian government was a fusion of Buddhist theocracy, Qing imperial usages, the Bogd Khaan assumed the same powers—symbolic and real—of Qing emperors in the past. The Buddhist religious establishment discovered new opportunities for gain and financial profit. Despite the presence of a government, real power lay in the Bogd Khaans court. The religious establishment appropriated revenues for its own purposes, for example, it enlarged its financial holdings by transferring to the religious estate wealthy herdsmen who traditionally had owed their services and taxes to lay princes. According to Mongolian and Russian sources, the Mongolian society was satisfied with the theocracy. The Republic of China, for its part, did all it could to re-establish Chinese sovereignty over the country, Russia refused to support full independence for Mongolia, nor would it agree to the restoration of Chinese sovereignty. The matter was settled in 1915 by the tripartite Treaty of Kyakhta, both the Chinese and Mongols found the treaty equally dissatisfying, although for different reasons. The outbreak of the Russian Revolution in 1917 and the Russian Civil War a year changed the Mongolian-Chinese dynamic. The invasion in fact did not occur, and so the Bogd Khaans government requested that the troops be recalled, the Beijing government refused, seeing this violation of the Kyakhta Treaty as the first step in restoring Chinese sovereignty over Mongolia. Early in 1919, Grigori Semyonov, a White Guard general, had assembled a group of Buryats, the Khalkhas were invited to join, but they refused. Semyonov threatened an invasion to force them to participate and this threat galvanized the lay princes, who now saw a larger opportunity, the end of theocratic rule

Mongolia is a landlocked country in Central Asia and East Asia, located between China and Russia. The terrain is one of …

The map showing the major cities and the neighbouring countries of Mongolia

The southern portion of Mongolia is taken up by the Gobi Desert, while the northern and western portions are mountainous.

Goats that died as result of a dzud

Snow covers Mongolia in patches in this image from December 21, 2003. Snowfall is normally light and blows away quickly during the winter, so to see this much snow on the ground at once is rather unusual.